A TRIP TO GUKONG BLUMUT. 107 



so as to effectually clear out any little warmth created by 

 our numbers, two hurricane lamps, and a fire on each side of 

 the hut. 



At 7 a.m. we found the thermometer in the hut shewing 67°. 

 Outside, at 4 a. in., it must have been three or four degrees 

 colder. We left for the ascent to the summit about 8 a. m., 

 the path at first leading down a rather steep slope, but it soon 

 began to asceud ; and the soil grew black and slippery, and 

 the trees slighter in bulk but thicker in number ; they wore 

 a thick coating of dripping- moss which made their appear- 

 ance very deceptive ; a stem apparently as thick as a man's 

 leg turning out to be no bigger than his wrist. After toil- 

 ing and climbing and squeezing our way up for an hour or 

 so, we reached the top of the ridge, where a furious wind was 

 rushing by, hurrying along an unbroken succession of dense 

 clouds; a little further on we came to an opening on the 

 eastern side with grass and bushes ; here we found two 

 varieties of fern, very handsome, one I recognised, having met 

 with it on Pinang Hill ; and Mr. Hullett has seen it at Wood- 

 lands on the coast of the old Straits facing Johor Bharu ; it 

 is, I believe, the Dipteris Horsfieldii : the other, I think, must 

 be the Matenia Vectinata. These two ferns are described by 

 Wallace in his work on the Malay Archipelago as rare species 

 he found^on Mt. Ophir, — the latter, he adds, being only found 

 on that mountain. The ferns we saw exactly corresponded 

 with the engraving which accompanies Wallace's account of 

 them, but none we saw exceeded two feet or so in height, 

 whereas Wallace describes those he met as reaching a 

 height of seven or eight feet and growing in groves. These, 

 however, were found growing close to the Padang Batu on Mount 

 Ophir, probably a warmer and more sheltered spot, and the 

 specimens we saw were likely to be dwarfed from their 

 damp and bleak situation. We got several roots of both 

 species, but I regret that none of them have come to any- 

 thing. After another half an hour's absolute climbing, in 

 which we had to make constant use of the bemossed stems 

 around us, we gained the summit, which is extremely nar- 

 row, hardly reaching 20 feet diameter anywhere ; it consists 

 of large blocks of granite, stunted trees, bushes, and the 

 rasau which I had noted with equal surprise on the top of 

 Panti ; it must be taken as an indication of dampness. In- 

 tent on getting a view, we climbed on to the top of some of 

 the rocks, but the clouds continued to sweep unbroken ov^er 

 us, and so we proceeded to take observations below the roc 



