174 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



had loosened great masses of rock. Not only were 

 there places where a rock that jutted forth to offer 

 a tempting foothold was really ready to drop the 

 moment that the least weight was laid upon it, but 

 often we found ourselves underneath a boulder that 

 had been broken off^ and that hung, supported by a 

 cat's-cradle of creepers, ready to fall at the slightest 

 oscillation. 



We reached the rim of the basin, with nothing worse 

 than cut hands. The amount of vegetation on the 

 top of the hill was surprising, and leaf-mould, which 

 was practically the only soil, had accumulated to 

 a considerable depth where the rock was level enough 

 to prevent it being washed away. Some of the trees 

 were of considerable girth, and rattans, with their 

 thorny covering, writhed over the rocks and blocked 

 the path in every direction. Between every tree 

 hung festoons of creepers. There was a profusion of 

 begonias, with coarse, quaintly shaped leaves and little 

 bunches of white flowers ; and hanging ferns of every 

 variety grew wherever there was moisture, and dwarf 

 spiky palms wherever there was shade. 



The luxuriance of the undergrowth completely up- 

 set our calculations, for, as I have said, we expected 

 to have a moderately open view among the larger 

 trees of the hilltop. We found, on the other hand, a 

 vegetation no less dense than that of the plain below 

 growing out of gigantic masses of rugged rock. 

 At places the ridge narrowed to a ledge not more 

 than a few feet wide, and then a little distance 

 farther on it widened to an irregular broken surface 

 of rock that was perhaps a hundred yards across. 



