COLLECTING EXPEDITION TO BATANG PADANG. 163 
other was very difficult and even dangerous. The more soas 
the course both up and down was among the slippery rocks of 
the beds of two mountain torrents. To add to our discomforts 
the rain fell heavily the greater part of the day, chilling us to 
the bone, and rendering everything more slippery than it 
would otherwise have been. Mr. C. Wray slipped and fell 
on a rock in the stream and hurt his knee rather badly, and I 
was troubled with a sore foot, the result of an abrasion caused 
by sand in my boot two days previously and the subsequent 
almost constant immersion in more or less dirty water. 
The pass on the south of Chabong, though about 1,000 feet 
lower than that over which Mr. CAMERON went, is, as far as we 
could see, quite impracticable for a road. 
Chabong itself is very rocky and precipitate and the hill to 
the south seems little better. 
The change in the soil on crossing the watershed was most 
marked. On the Pahang side the soil, except just near the top 
of the ridge, was deep, free and rich, while on the Kinta side 
it was a hard, greasy, pale yellowish clay. 
At about 4 P. M. we had descended to an altitude of 2,400 
feet, and coming to a Sakai house, put up in it for the night. 
The house was in a large clearing planted with Chinese millet, 
which is known by the Sakai name of Sefua, and the Malay 
name of Eker Kuchin. This grain is largely grown by the 
Sakais both in these hills and in the Plus District, but we saw 
no rice in any of the Sakai ladangs, and the staple food stuff 
seemed to be Ubi Kayu. 
They also grow sweet potatoes, sugar-cane and pumpkins. 
No fruit of any kind is planted, except in the settlements near 
the Malay kampongs, but tobacco we saw in the most out-of-the- 
way ladangs on the hills. The Sakais in the Telum Valley and 
also on the Kinta side of Chabong acknowledge Toh SONG of 
Batu Pipis, near Kuala Dipang as their Chief. 
Early on the morning of the 23rd we made a start and con- 
tinued downthe Kampar Pires ere srown toa large stream— 
and with difficulty forded. More than half the way we were 
led either in the water or over the rocks of the river bed and 
were continually crossing from side to side of the river. 
Sakai tracks, where possible, invariably follow the bed of 
