400 Dr. Jack on the Geology and Topography 



navigable for a hundred miles from its mouth, rises in the northern portion of 

 Rana-lima-pulo, and chiefly from the mountain Tinkalang. 



With Menangkabau and the sources of the Indragiri river, the journey 

 undertaken in 1818 by Sir T. S. Raffles has made us better acquainted. He 

 proceeded from Padang, on the west coast, and after crossing three ridges of 

 hifls, exceeding 4000 feet in height, and covered with primeval forests, 

 through which the beds of torrents afforded the only passage, he descended 

 upon the Tigablas country, which is bounded on the south by Gunong Tal- 

 lang. The cultivated part of the great vafley of Tigablas may be about twenty 

 miles long and ten broad, and would seem to have been at one time entirely 

 covered by the waters of the existing lake, which is skirted by hills in every 

 direction, that of the valley excepted. Gunong Tallang, with its adjacent hills, 

 seems to form a transverse range, and to break the regularity of all the other 

 ranges which it intersects. On the eastern side of the lake, which is about 

 fifteen miles long by from seven to nine broad, commences the province of 

 Menangkabau Proper, and at the distance of a few miles from its banks is 

 situated the ancient capital of Pagaruyong. 



The Indragiri river has its source on the eastern side of lake Sophia*, and 

 flows through the province of Menangkabau, receiving the waters of the cele- 

 brated Ayer Mas or "Golden Stream," which passes through Pagaruyong, and 

 soon after of a large river which rises in Agam, behind G. Singalang and 

 G. Berapi, and traverses a portion of the more eastern district of Rana-lima- 

 pulo. The Indragiri is navigable for small boats a considerable way above the 

 fafls ; but the exact position of these has not been ascertained. The mountain 

 of most interest in this quarter is that of Berapi, which is constantly emitting 

 smoke : its elevation was ascertained, by angles taken from the lake, to be 

 about 13,000 feet ; it is connected towards the western coast with the moun- 

 tain Singalang, estimated at about 12,000 feet ; and to the north and eastward 

 with Gunong Kasumbra, first discovered on this expedition and calculated to be 

 not less than 15,000 feet above the level of the sea; being therefore the highest 

 mountain in Sumatra. The Kampar, which is mentioned in the Portuguese 

 histories as of some importance, is a river of small size, situated between the 

 Siak and Indragiri ; it has its origin in the easternmost hills, which bound the 

 province of Rana-lima-pulo, and does not penetrate beyond them into the 

 more elevated country of the " Darat." 



As a detailed account of the journey to Menangkabau, and of the observa- 



* The lake, to which the natives had given no proper name, has lately received the denomina- 

 tion of Lake Sophia, in honour of Lady Raffles, who accompanied Sir T. S. Raffles in his late 

 expedition into this part of Sumatra. 



