IN SUMATBA. 217 



have been a whit worse off had the copy been less minutely 

 imitated. 



In the beginning of July I packed my Lanting and con- 

 tinued my journey to Batu Pantjeh, gliding down the river 

 by this delightful mode of travel, which enabled me, carrying 

 my drying-paper and frames with A\e, to botanise all along 

 the river-side, stopping when and where I desired. 



Near this village, the country became much lower on both 

 sides, showing that we were approaching the borders of the 

 great alluvial plateau of Palembang. Among my excursions I 

 suddenly came one day on a wide area, in the deep forest, 

 overspread with coral blocks, which in some places had become 

 solidified into more or less crystalline masses like what one 

 sees in the basework of a coral reef. It was evident that they 

 were standing, as l^ft centuries ago by the seashore where 

 they were washed through and round about by the surf; 

 here corroded into crevices and bored by molluscs, and there 

 excavated into deep pits, and surrounded with blocks of worn 

 stones as if the tide had not long retreated from this old shore, 

 to-day distant as the crow flies 200 miles from the coast. Now, 

 however, great trees were shadowing them, and gigantic figs 

 twining their roots among their grateful crannies ; ferns clothed 

 with graceful fronds the wasted blocks, and Begonias blossomed 

 over them. To alter Tennyson's well-known lines : — 



Tiiere roll'd the deep where grows the tree, 



O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! 

 There where the forest sleeps hath heen 



The shore line of the noisy sea. 



I was detained here, by an injury to my foot, for many 

 \\eeks much against my will, for the half pagan half Maho- 

 medan people of the Ampat Lawang in unpleasant contrast 

 to those of the other regions I had been among, were any- 

 thin"- but friendly. They Avould neither give nor sell food 

 of any description, except a little old rice of the worst quality. 

 They even refused to carry my letters, so that I was unable to 

 make known my condition to the authorities or obtain relief till 

 I was well enough to resume my journey to complain in person, 

 when the chief of the village was rewarded according to his 

 deeds by the Magistrate. 



The Batu Pantjeh houses are of a peculiar construction, com- 



