176 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



my starting-point, my support began to gave way. 

 The roots came slowly out of the bare rock, first 

 brown, then browny-white, then white. I was only 

 a few feet from W. on the one side and from Hussein 

 on the other, but it was almost impossible to move 

 towards either of them. Luckily W., holding a tree- 

 root with one hand, was able to reach over to seize 

 my outstretched hand and pull me into safety. It 

 was only just in time; and we left the poor little 

 bush, with all but its last white roots torn out, hang- 

 ing head downwards over the precipice. Hussein had 

 to go back and make a detour to reach us. 



We were making our way over and round, up and 

 down, gigantic masses of boulders covered with vege- 

 tation, when we heard a tremendous crashing through 

 the trees not many yards in front of us, and then the 

 sound of an animal going sheer down the rock to our 

 left. Thud thud thud. It sounded like the fall 

 of a leaping rock, and we could hardly believe that a 

 living animal could be charging down such a break- 

 neck spot at so headlong a pace. In a few seconds 

 we heard it wildly galloping through the undergowth 

 of the central basin below us. Then the sounds died 

 away, and that was all. We saw nothing, of course. , 



We found the place where the goat had been sleep- 

 ing, and picked up some long coarse hairs. We kept 

 on our way, and soon the rock began to rise towards 

 the western peak. The central basin, which we had 

 had on our left-hand side, now came to an end, and 

 we turned our backs upon it to climb the peak. It 

 was a great dome -shaped mass of rock covering a 

 great many acres, and, like the rest of the hill, was 



