VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS 43 



Frederick Henry Island was low swampy country, 

 but it was assumed that, considering the fact that the 

 highest peaks of the Snow Mountains were known to 

 be not more than seventy miles from the sea, the foot- 

 hills would certainly extend to within a short distance 

 of the coast. 



Before we had reached the country we had had 

 the idea that in a few days' march we should find our- 

 selves in the hills at perhaps three or four thousand 

 feet above the sea, but the view of the country which 

 we saw from the Nias effectually put an end to any hopes 

 of that kind. It is probable that more searching 

 enquiries made at Batavia would have revealed the 

 existence of this wide belt of low land, but it seldom 

 occurs to you to question the truth of such an assump- 

 tion. However that may be, a serious mistake was 

 made and we paid for it dearly enough. The mountains 

 appeared to rise very steeply from the low ground, 

 and seen from a distance they appeared to be composed 

 of parallel ridges lying one behind the other, each one 

 successively higher than the one in front of it. It 

 was only in certain lights, and more particularly when 

 the clouds began to form on them, that you could 

 distinguish deep and narrow valleys running into the 

 mountains. The nearer ranges rose steeply enough, 

 but were not too steep to be covered with dense forest 

 easily discernible from a distance. The furthermost 

 ridge on the other hand rose in huge precipices of bare 

 rock, which showed reddish yellow in the morning 

 sunhght with here and there downward stripes of 

 black colour, presumably water, and in other places 



