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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



of it. Thus, one by one, the old man of the cave 

 included, we reached the top. There the party 

 formed up again for the return march, the ladder 

 was rolled up, torches relit, and the old man set off 

 at a good pace, some of our party following him, 

 when one or two of the Malays called after them 

 not to go as he was going somewhere else, not the 

 way out. So we all, with the torches, retraced our 

 steps, and the old man disappeared down a dark 

 alley to the left. I don't know who he was, I 

 expect an imbecile who had taken up his residence 

 for many years there, and so was looked upon by 

 the villagers partly with amused pity and partly 

 with superstitious awe. One thing in the caves 

 was unpleasant to see — persons' names carved 

 and scratched on the rocks, — an extraordinary 

 mania. 



We regained the entrance all right, and the 

 mysterious troglodyte was there asking alms. 

 During our time on the hill, the tide had risen to 

 full, thus enabling our canoes to be brought right up 

 to the village; so about 4.30 p.m., we re-embarked 

 With the aid of the ebbing tide we were 

 paddled down the tropical stream very quickly, 

 each bank an ever-changing panorama of the 

 richest vegetation. Kingfishers, green pigeons, and 

 many another lovely bird ever and anon delighted 

 our eyes. We returned rather a different way to 

 that we had come, and got to within a quarter of a 

 mile of the guest-house by water, and then walked ; 

 I found it was all I could do to carry the big 

 monitor. That evening, I had great work skinning 

 birds and beasts, till very late. A crowd of 

 Chinese assembled to see the big monitor flayed, 

 and were astonished and delighted when I threw 

 away the liver, heart, etc. They thought, of 

 course, that I had shot it for medicine, and nearly 

 came to blows among themselves over the bits I let 

 them take ; as a monitor provides a Chinese 

 druggist With much valuable stores. 



That night I slept on a couch in the sitting-room, 

 much better than a chair, and woke up and arose 

 early as usual. The day's expedition was to be on 

 the Kedah river, and the Tunkoo was going to 

 provide us with boats. We had to wait about till 

 ten o'clock, however, before the officials arranged 

 anything, then two garries appeared and drove us 

 down to the landing-place in Kota Star, where 

 another wait of about an hour took place. As I 

 had no rifle the Tunkoo lent me one, a funny old 

 thing that had belonged to his father. It was 

 originally built in Edinburgh. The extractor did 

 not work, so to extract the cartridge-case I had to 

 ram a rod down the barrel and then bang it 

 judiciously on athwart, which, as may be imagined, 

 gave me no chance of a second shot at anything. 

 It was meant for a single 500 express, but kicked 

 like a ten-bore. The boats placed at our disposal 

 were two very good ones, like the smallest ship's 



boats of an English man-o'-war. They belonged 

 to the " Good Luck," the Sultan's yacht. Each boat 

 had a crew of two Keddah sailors, Malays, but 

 dressed like English blue-jackets. They were fairly 

 smart, rowed well, and, at any rate in my boat, got 

 on well with us and obeyed orders. One boat had 

 an awning, so I went for the other and we got 

 under way first. I coxed my boat, and one of my 

 friends sat in the bows with his Martini handy. 

 We spent the whole day rowing and drifting on the 

 river. I had no opportunity of using the Tunkoo's 

 rifle, but shot three butcha crocodiles with my guns. 

 We saw several little ones, but none bigger than 

 about thirty inches. We saw a dead one about nine 

 feet long, and the remains of a skeleton of another, 

 that looked as if it had been of great size. On the 

 carcase cf the nine-footer was a monitor, five or 

 six feet long ; whether it "was eating the flesh of 

 the dead crocodile, or insects or crabs attracted by 

 that flesh, I cannot say. We saw four monitors 

 in all that day. My friend shot one three feet 

 nine inches long. It was beautifully marked with 

 eye-like spots down each side. Its food seemed 

 to consist of crabs. As usual, we saw many 

 monkeys and kingfishers. I forgot to mention 

 that, on the previous afternoon, while descending 

 the river, it came on to pour with rain, and 

 we all got drenched to the skin. Well, unluckily, 

 the same thing happened whilst we had our tiffin 

 in the boat this day, We got back to Kota Star 

 just before dark, and walked to the guest-house. 

 As some of the party had expressed a desire to buy 

 genuine krises, that evening the young Malay who 

 specially looked after us brought in about a dozen 

 for us to see ; their prices were as much as thirty 

 dollars (worth £6 to a Malay in Kedah, or from £3 

 to ^3 5s. to an Englishman). 



The next day we got up pretty early, dressed in 

 our still wet clothes in the dark, and at daybreak 

 drove off to Kota Star. While passing through the 

 town we saw gangs of convicts going out for their 

 day's work, manacled like the hero of an opera 

 when he is cast "into the deepest dungeon 

 beneath the castle moat," that is to say, iron 

 anklets and belt, joined by heavy clanking chains, 

 which must make even walking difficult and 

 running out of the question. We also passed some 

 police at drill, the words of command were English, 

 but two or three drill-books behind that at present 

 in use. Arrived at the landing stage, we got the 

 same boats as on the day before, and were soon 

 away down stream ; we saw the dead crocodile 

 again, and. lower down, another about twelve feet 

 long ; also, this day the tide being low, we saw a lot 

 of live crocodiles on both banks. They were 

 apparently of a different species to the one I knew 

 in India, and the surroundings were different. 

 Instead of the broad yellow sandbanks and country 

 behind, here one hardly ever saw dry land, only 



