50 MALACCA. [chap. hi. 



what was absolutely necessary. We accordingly took a 

 blanket each, and divided our food and other articles among 

 us, and went on with only the old Malay and his son. 



After descending into the saddle between the two peaks 

 we found the ascent very laborious, the slope being so steep 

 as often to necessitate hand-climbing. ' Besides a bushy 

 vegetation the ground was covered knee-deep with mosses 

 on a foundation of decaying leaves and rugged rock, and it 

 was a hard hour's climb to the small ledge just below the 

 summit, where an overhanging rock forms a convenient 

 shelter, and a little basin collects the trickling water. 

 Here we put down our loads, and in a few minutes 

 more stood on the summit of Mount Ophir, 4,000 feet 

 above the sea. The top is a small rocky platform 

 covered with rhododendrons and other shrubs. The 

 afternoon was clear, and the view fine in its way — ranges 

 of hill and valley everywhere covered with interminable 

 forest, with glistening rivers winding among them. In a 

 distant view a forest country is very monotonous, and no 

 mountain I have ever ascended in the tropics presents a 

 panorama equal to that from Snowdon, whde the views in 

 Switzerland are immeasurably superior. When boiling 

 our coffee I took observations with a good boiling-point 

 thermometer, as well as with the sympiesometer, and we 

 then enjoyed our evening meal and the noble prospect that 

 lay before us. The night was calm and very mild, and 



