SELAMA TO PONG, PATANI. 109 
that quite unnecessarily we went upa very steep hill; lost all 
tracks ; wandered about and finally fetched the bottom again, 
and the river. We lost about two hours by this manceuvre. 
It rained hard all day from 10 A.M. until 5 P.M. 
Stopped to camp at 3.15 P.M. beside Sungei Krong, in 
heavy rain. Some of the men have run out of provisions. 
It willbe danyan day with them till we reach Pong, which we 
shall not do until the day after to-morrow. 
About 8 P.M. two big bamboos fell right on my hut, coming 
down with great force; although a most fragile “lean to,” 
strange to say, no damage was done. 
20th November.—Started at 8.30 A.M. and followed down 
stream (Sungei Krong) steering a little East of North, the 
path crossing and re-crossing it. At 10 A.M. came toan old 
abandoned Malay camp beside the river. First sign of human 
beings for some days. At 11 A.M. arrived at Sungei Rui 
where the Krong runs into it, having crossed the Krong this 
morning 11 times ; shot a snake in a bush, about 6 feet long 
and as big round as my wrist; the Semangs were afraid to 
pass it as they said it was dangerous. The Rui here is about 
60 feet wide and not deep; swift current; roundstones at 
bottom, big rocks hardly any. Crossed it, and soon after, the 
Semangs discovering some wild fruit trees, and the track 
being here very well defined, I left them and most of the 
men behind to feast on fruit (none of them having had more 
than a mouthful or two of rice to-day), and pushed on with 
the Pénghulu for the hot spring, Sira Tye, which is on our 
track, in hopes of getting a shot at a rhinoceros or elephant 
before the men came up. Arrived at Sira Tye at 1.15 P.M., 
but no animals were to be seen, unfortunately, though marks 
were plentiful. This spot is all rock; the Rui has a fall here 
of about 15 feet; Sira Tye bubbles up out of the rock close to 
the mouth of a small stream running into the Rui. It is 
tolerably hot where the water bubbles up; the stone is worn 
quite smooth, from animals continually licking at it. I tasted 
the water, but failed to see what the animals can like about 
it; it has a strong sulphureous taste. The hot spring I 
tasted at Hulu Krian the other day was (to me) quite taste- 
less and was not nearly so warm. There are the remains 
