85 



Owing partly to an actual scarcity of elephants au<l partly to the 

 reluctance of the owners to use them for transport purposes on the 

 plea that this damages their efficiency for timber hauling, which is 

 their principal use, we had to rely in the main on coolies. 



Though quite willing, the local Siamese were extraordinarily 

 inefficient as jungle carriers, and all loads other than those of the 

 most trifling weight had to be carried slung on a pole between two 

 men. 



After about the first five miles, when the primary jungle was 

 entered, there was practically no path, the track taken being along the 

 banks of the river itself, which in places was deep and rapid and had to 

 be crossed between thirty and forty times. Under these circumstances 

 progress was slow, and though our impedimenta were reduced to a 

 minimum and there was no lack of coolies we did not arrive at our 

 destination until the afternoon of the second day, though, as stated 

 above, the total distance traversed could not have been more than 

 fifteen miles. Owing to the rocky and broken nature of the country 

 there was some difficulty in finding a suitable site for a camp, which 

 was enhanced by the fact that there were no suitable palm leaves for 

 roofing purposes, banana leaves, which are very perishable and unsatis- 

 factory, having to be used. 



During our stay on the mountain, which lasted from 11th June to 

 28th June, the weather was very unfavourable. There was always 

 a strong wind, and rain, though at no time heavy, was almost 

 continuous after about 10 a.m. Birds and animals were by no means 

 numerous. 



.3. K.\0 NAWXG (upper camp). 



During our stay on the mountain a party was detached for worlf at 

 higher elevations and a camp was established at about 3,500 feet, 

 a few himdred feet below the extreme summit of the range, in a 

 saddle between two peaks. The weather was extremely wet and 

 windy, the collecting ground very limited in extent, owing to the 

 steepness of the mountain, and covered with very dense and matted 

 vegetation, and the results wei-e therefore not large, though several 

 very interesting species both of birds and mammals wei'e obtained. 



The principal object in collecting on these hills which have never 

 previously been visited by a naturalist was to ascertain what relation- 

 ship their fauna bore to that of the main peninsular range to 

 south and to that of the Tenasserim mountain Nwala])o and Muleyit 

 to the north. 



As might be expected, the present collections show that the fauna 

 is almost exactly intermediate, so much so that in many cases it 

 is difficult to state whether a specimen should be assigned to the 

 Tenasserim or the Malayan race, when these have been separated. The 

 area of these hills above the 3,000 feet and 4,0u0 feet contours is 



