IN SUMATBA. 159 



which choice flowers had been phintcd ; and as we ascended, 

 other species of orchids appeared, and shrubby Khododendrons 

 with bright scarlet bells, (B. tuMJlorum and malayanum). 

 Nearer the top, the vegetation was mostly composed of lean- 

 armed and straggling myrtles and shrubs of the heather-bell 

 family. 



Crowds of blue-bottle flies, a few bees, a couple of lepidop- 

 tera, and a small bird, with a Ploceus-\\ke chirp, flitting about 

 among the tall reeds, represented life at 7200 feet. 



Before descending, I stood to watch the gathering of the 

 clouds, which in the wet season begin toward midday to en- 

 velope the mountain-crests. Here and there white masses, like 

 puffs of steam, would suddenly appear over the wooded lands 

 below, principally over deep and naturally cold ravines, till the 

 whole landscape was dotted with little flocks of clouds, and 

 occasionally, even while I was looking, a white cloud would 

 suddenly condense along the margin of the sea, and, travelling 

 inward up the mountain side as a dense fog, which finally 

 descended in heavy rain just as I got back with my collection 

 to the rest-house of the previous evening. 



Next morning I descended to the Balai at Terratas. After 

 several days of drying and packing up my collections, I started 

 back for our camp at Penanggungan, to prepare for my return 

 to Telok-betong on my way to Batavia. 



The road at this season, now well on in the ^\et monsoon, 

 though of no great length, was excessively bad, so that the 

 transport of my bulky herbarium in a dry condition became an 

 anxious and difficult matter. Things went well till we reached 

 the steep climb to the top of the pass at 2000 feet— eight hours 

 of hard trudging, plunging and scrambling, with feet, legs, 

 and bodies bleeding from thousands of leeches. From the top 

 of the pass the road lay along a nearly level plateau for many 

 miles, through, virgin forest. Here the rain came down in 

 cold, heavy lines, flooded the path and enlivened the army of 

 leeches, which wriggled and stretched their green, bloodthirsty 

 necks from every leaf and blade of grass. The journey at 

 last became a dogged, cheerless trudge; I was past caring 

 for any change of weather ; things were as bad as they could 

 be. Not a single word was uttered, except the intermittent 

 " All'-il-allahs " — whose very woe-begoneness made me smile in 



