IN TIMOR 471 



The trees on .the perpendicular foces of the rocks Mere 

 crowded with the only mammalian animal I had yet seen, 

 a lively grey monlvey [2Iacacus cynomohgiis)^ which chattered 

 and squeaked most lustily at my intrusion. 



AVith a few extra porters, necessitated by the considerable 

 additions made to my herbarium here, we started north-east 

 for the Eajah of Samoro's, in whose territory stood the Peak 

 of Sobale, whose summit I wished to visit. The road thitlier, 

 which like all others in this grooved and excavated island 

 never betook itselt' along a plain, was a hot and wx*ary uj^-and- 

 down trudije througrh fields thousands of acres in extent, of 

 tall grass and canes, sjiarsoly dotted with bamboo eluinps, 

 with Casiiarinas, Acacias, and Euphorbiaceous trees, which 

 simply cumbered a vast extent of what seamed very fertile 

 black land. Starting at 2500 feet above the sea, we meandered 

 through a shallow hollow up to 2700 feet, thence we followed 

 a long winding descent— which, though interspersed with 

 humps and hollows, might in Timor be called level— to 

 1400 feet where we struck the highway of the Fahiletan 

 river-bed \\hich brought us 400 feet lower to the residence 

 of his Majesty of Samoro, whose son received us. The river 

 banks were wooded with Casuarinas, ]\Iyrtles, and Gum-trees 

 (which had again become abundant), interspersed with dense 

 and impenetrable thickets of Bamboo-durie (ScMzostacJiiiun 

 . durio), which offered a splendid hold for the beautiful feathery 

 Asparagus racmiosus and the tendrils of that grand Timor 

 lily, the Gloriosa siiperha, whose curiously coloured corolla, 

 half scarlet half orange (entirely changing after fecundation 

 to scarlet), overspread its great clumps with a fiery blaze of 

 flowers, w hile that once so rare and highly prized of orchids, 

 the Vaivia insignis, rejoiced our way with its fragrance. 



The strata cropping out in the river-bed were quite different 

 from any I had noticed elsewhere on my journey. They were 

 pale-gray rou£rh crvstalline sandstones in beds half a foot 

 thick, alternating with black bands of about the same thick- 

 ness of what had been once fine mud, whose lower surfaces 

 exhibited radiating annelid-like fossil impressions. Lhese 

 stratified rocks, which dipped into the river at a high angle 

 ^-ere in many places clearly seen to be entirely embedded 

 ftfter they had begun to 'be attacked by some eroding 



