170 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



tube. The trees and plants that cover them, wher- 

 ever seed can find root, do not differ greatly from 

 those of the forest that covers the surrounding 

 plains, but so precipitous are the hills that in the 

 landscape each of them looks as solitary as any 

 crag that thrusts its head above the level of the 

 waves in the wide sea. When one is close, the 

 first general impression is that of an expanse of 

 chill grey limestone, so sheer or overhanging that 

 not even a fern can find root-hold on its bare side, 

 and of a line of forest trees growing upon the summit 

 in bold outline against the sky, and completely cut 

 off by the precipice from the forest of the plains. 

 A second glance, however, generally shows that the 

 precipice is broken in places where the stone appears 

 to have crumbled away, and that here the trees of 

 the hilltop come down to meet the trees of the plain. 

 The hills vary in size, some being little more than 

 gigantic isolated boulders, whilst others are two thou- 

 sand feet high and many miles in circumference. 

 The slopes of the granite mountain-ranges that run 

 down from the Burmo - Siamese frontier, and form 

 the backbone of the peninsula, are infested by tigers 

 and panthers, and it is probably from a fear of these 

 animals that the goats have betaken themselves to 

 the isolated and precipitous limestone hills, where 

 they live in perfect safety from molestation. One 

 of these island-like crags is called Gunong Kroh. 

 I first came upon it by accident, and spent a night 

 in a Malay house at its base, whilst in search of 

 the tracks of a rhinoceros. The hill rose, like a wall, 

 out of the level plain, within a few hundred yards of 



