ABOUT KIMTA. 



27 



From the foot of G-unong Eobinson we struck more to the South- 

 west than the South, by which we had come, crossing the Sungei 

 Penoh, at an elevation of about 2,500 feet, with hills on both sides 

 of us, up to 5,000 aud 6,000 feet. The Ceylon men were in raptures 

 with the soil about here. From this we continued in a South- 

 westerly direction till we reached the Sungei Eaya and followed 

 the course of that river to the plains. This is all that is at present 

 known of this extensive tract of forest extending to an indefinite, 

 distance to the East at an elevation of from 2,000 or 3,000 feet up to 

 7,000 or 8,000 feet ; that it extends a long way further was evident 

 from the volume of the streams draining it. 



After leaving the Sungei Eaya, the next navigable river met 

 with to the East is the Kainpar, flowing past the foot of Griinoug 

 Bujaug Malaka. This was the hill on which Mr. Hasdyslde began 

 his first clearing, attracted to the place not so much by the soil as 

 by the facilities afforded by a navigable river to the foot of the hill. 

 Mr. Handyside's attempt proved a miserable failure, as might easily 

 have been foreseen; ignorant of any eastern language but Tamil, he 

 took a gang of twenty newly arrived Chinese coolies without an inter- 

 preter up on the mountain ; with them and some assistance from 

 the Malays and Sakeis he managed to fell about eight or ten acres 

 of forest in the height of the wet season, when it was impossible to 

 burn it ; the solitude of his life and the semi-mutiny of his coolies, 

 with whom he could not exchange a single word, was too much for 

 him, and his health and spirits completely gave way, and when Mr. 

 Smith and I visited him early in January we found him in a most 

 desponding state of mind, wishing he could find some one to buy his 

 concession and reimburse him for his outlay; the offer was too good 

 to be pressed, and Mr. Smith: at once closed with it. This partly led 

 to the second expedition to the hills. Mr. Smith, having now 

 obtained a large grant of land, determined not to fix on a site to 

 commence operations till he had seen more of the country. The 

 Q-overnment was anxious to obtain more information about the 

 unknown country to the East, so I was commissioned to organize 

 an expedition to the eastern frontier of Perak, and with that object 

 Mr. Smith and I, with eight elephants and a string of followers, 

 started from Kwala Kabul, a place about three miles South of BCijong 

 Malaka on the Kampar river, on the 25th March last. Before 

 going any farther, I should mention that the Kampar river is a 

 large tributary of the Kinta, joining the latter river a short way 



