12 JOURNEY ON THE SEMBRONG RIVER.^ 



The last of the bag-gag-e did not arrrive till the afternoon 

 of the 3id Nov. and Che Ma Hassain did not leave us till he 

 saw everything- brought into camp. The conduct of this Peng"- 

 hulu cannot be too highly spoken of. All the Malay Peng-hulus 

 and headmen with whom we had any dealings were with one or 

 two exceptions most civil and obliging, gi\'ing- every assistance in 

 the way of men and boats, but Che Ma Hassain surpassed them 

 all, coming much further than his duty required in order to save 

 us trouble with the men and to see that we had every facility 

 for carrying out our plans. In manners and bearing he was a 

 perfect gentleman. Leaving our plant and bird collectors at 

 Simpai, we started on the 4th Nov. down stream in two medium- 

 sized jalors and after two hours poling^ rea( hed Cheh Cheh 

 where we changed into a large jalor. On our way we taw a 

 fine specimen of the banded viper (Biuvjarus fasciatus) in a 

 hole in the bank. On an attempt being made to kill it, it took 

 to the water and by diving escaped. Just after leaving Cheh 

 I shot a specimen of the beautiful little dark purple king- 

 fisher (Alcedo meninting) and sliortly afterwards two specimens 

 of a curious and very prettily coloured fringed lizard. 



The jungle gradually became more and more swampy as 

 we proceeded, until we reached a part where for miles the 

 forest bordering the river grows apparently in the water, there 

 being scarcely any dry g'round visible. There appeared to be a 

 good many orchids in this place ; then comes a stretch of Easau 

 swamps and here we noticed the Kinta weed (Vanda Hookeriana). 

 Later on we passed through swampy padangs, where the grass 

 brushed our boat on each side and at dusk vre stopped at the only 

 bit of dry ground we could find to cook our supper and intended 

 to spend the night there, but the mosquitoes were so bad that the 

 boat men, although they had a long day's work, preferred to go 

 on and work all night. Presently, however, we met the rising 

 tide, which was so strong that we tied up to the bank for some 

 hours and did not proceed till it turned again, when we slid 

 easily down stream to Batu Pahat, which we reached about 

 5 a.m. 



We remained at Batu Pahat for some days and took some 

 observations from the hills, from which good views of Ophir, the 

 Berembun group, Blumut, Pantie, Mintahak, and Pulai, were 



