108 A TRIP TO GUNONG BLUMUT. 



instead, and groped and slid about under them and the 

 greasy black roots and soil between them with some success, 

 finding a variety of ferns and damp plants ; most of the mois- 

 ture-loving ferns we found are, I think, to be met with on 

 Pinang Hill, but I came across one variety which is very 

 like a creeper — the Malays call it " ba/ju-baju" — but which I 

 had never seen or heard of before ; there was a good deal of it in 

 one or two places ; it reaches about one foot in height and 

 is very slight and delicate ; it grows on a horizontal root 

 with small fibrous tap-roots. We found a few orchids of the 

 commoner sorts. We found also another growth which 

 I have never seen before ; at first, among the other 

 foliage, it looked like some kind of pine or fir, such as grows 

 on Pinang Hill, but on examination it proved to be a creeper ; 

 we did not find its root ; we brought down a spray with us, 

 which I have submitted to the inspection of Mr. Murton, the 

 Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. 



The summit of this mountain is certainly a most extraor- 

 dinary place, with its rocks and roots of trees so disposed 

 in a continuous descent as to form a succession of steep and 

 slippery caves, which constantly require climbing to get 

 through, and where it is often difficult to get a footing. 

 Native tradition has been wont to call this the house of the 

 tiger race, but on the approach of the white man the race has 

 been removed to the sister mountainof Chimundong, where it 

 Avill doubtless remain till the invasion of some adventurous 

 " orang puteh" drives it back to that other stronghold of the 

 race Gunong Ledang (Mount Ophir). When on an expedi- 

 tion to Mcntehak in 1877, I was informed that no one, not 

 even a Jakun, had ever reached the summit of Blumut, 

 Jakuns only passing over the lower points; the obstacle 

 being tribes of huge and ferocious monkeys which rendered 

 it dangerous, if not impossible, to attempt it. It is true 

 that no Jakun had ever been to the top of this mountain, 

 till one or two of them went with Mr. Hill a few days before 

 us, but I regret to say that the monkeys were disappointing- 

 ly timid and retiring ; not one ventured within sight of us. 



Having tied up our plants, we once more climbed on to the 

 top of the rocks, and by 1 p. m. the clouds had all cleared 

 away, and we had the satisfaction of a fine viaw in all direc- 

 tions ; the horizon, however, never quite cleared, remaining 

 hazy to the last, so that we did not succeed in making out 



