42 



Malacca. 



were overgrown with ferns. Our oldest Malay had been ac- 

 customed to shoot birds in this neighborhood for the Ma- 

 lacca dealers, and had been to the top of the mountain ; and 

 while we amused ___ 

 ourselves shoot- 

 ing and insect- 

 hunting, he went 

 with two others 

 to clear the path 

 for our ascent the 

 next day. 



Early the next 

 morning we start- 

 ed after break- 

 fast, carrying blankets and pro- 

 \asions, as we intended to sleep 

 upon the mountain. After pass- 

 ing a little tangled jungle and 

 swampy thickets through which 

 our men had cleared a path, we 

 emerged into a fine lofty forest 

 pretty clear of undergrowth, and 

 in which we could walk freely. 

 We ascended steadily up a mod- 

 erate slope for several miles, 

 having a deep ravine on our left. 

 We then had a level plateau or 

 shoulder to cross, after which 

 the ascent was steeper and the 

 forest denser, till we came out 

 upon the • " Padang-batu," or 

 stone field, a place of which w^e 

 had heard much, but could nev- 

 er get any one to describe in- 

 telligibly. We found it to be a 

 steep slope of even rock, extend- 

 ing along the mountain-side far- 

 ther than we could see. Parts 

 of it were quite bare, but where it was cracked and fissured 

 there grew a most luxuriant vegetation, among which the 



RARE FERNS ON MOUNT OPHIR. 



