1920J Ridley : Peninsular Siamese Plants. 77 



and fifty ft. — and Tasan our next stopping place, lies at the 

 eastern foot of the lulls 2^/4 kilometres farther on. 



Tasan is not a village but only the station of the engineer 

 of the Railway Department who is in charge of road con- 

 struction. The latter is at present of earth only and is 

 impassible in the wet season : the bridges are all of rough 

 wood and there is a considerable amount of cutting and 

 embankment : after the first two hours from Tapli there is 

 a good deal of water (the Klong In Song) along or across the 

 track. 



Tasan lies in a basin into which the elephant track, 

 following quite a different route from the road, enters from 

 the south-west. The house of the Engineer, Signor Giacone; 

 his office, clerks quarters, coolie lines and a vegetable 

 garden on the flat, make up the settlement. The elephants 

 took about 6 hours on the journey, I and my boy 3% hours. 

 We temporarily unloaded into an old shed and I spent the 

 night with the very hospitable engineer. Next day I set up 

 the tents and made camp beneath some trees near the station 

 between the Klong Tasan and a little tributary of good 

 water and we moved the luggage into it. Deer flies were 

 troublesome and in the evening a huge species of mosquito 

 was active. Seven elephants were sent back for the remain- 

 ing baggage for which shelters were ready and which arrived 

 next day with Robinson. 



The engineer and his household were all ill with fever 

 from which he had already lost tlu'ee servants. Tigers also 

 were bad and had recently taken from a stable within 30 

 yards of the house a pony and a cow. As a collecting 

 locality, however, the place looked promising though the 

 walk from Tapli was very uninteresting while the hard open 

 road and hot sun had been rather trying. 



At Tasan we had excellent di*y weather but hot to us — 

 the shade temperature one afternoon being 95°, though 

 generally it was about 92° : at daybreak it was about 68 ° ; 

 but once when it fell to 65° the night seemed very cold. 

 In the neighbourhood the country is undulating and 

 nowhere steep : walking in the valleys is easy. There was 

 a great deal of bamboo in the forest which, fairly dense on 

 the flat, was sufficiently open to allow moving about with 

 ease on the hill tops ; much of this bamboo was fruiting. 



There was no great abundance of plants in flower nor 

 were there many orchids : blossom was commonest on 

 bushes and climbers and on a few inconspicuous little plants. 

 Clear-water streams were numerous across the tracks and 

 in damp spots leeches were troublesome while bush-ticks 

 abounded eveiywhere. The camp was a pleasant one owing 

 to its dryness and the absence of mosquitoes ; but several 

 of our men had short attacks of fever. Elephants frequent- 

 ly passed through Tasan and a few Siamese went to and fro, 

 but there was no cart traffic. 



Twelve elephants having arrived from Chumporn, on 

 the 28th March we saw a start made with loading-up and 



