ABOUT £I3TA. 33 



Having crossed the Songkei, our route still lay in a south* 

 easterly direction, and it took us two days to reach the river Slimj 

 our rate of travelling was very slow, as elephants are not used in 

 this part of the country, and, although the path was sufficiently 

 good, there was not sufficient headway, and the mahouts had to stop 

 every few paces to cut away the branches of the trees. 



The first day after leaving the Songkei we were much impressed 

 by the luxuriance of the Bertam palms. The climate is evidently 

 exceptionally moist about here, to judge by the quantity of moss and 

 ferns we saw. About the middle of the first day from the Songkei 

 we reached the Sungei Trola, a tributary of the Slim. "We had 

 now, therefore, left the watershed of the Perak river. This will 

 therefore, I think, be a good point to make a break in this Paper, 

 which is extending itself beyond the limits I at first intended. 



If this account proves sufficiently interesting to the members 

 of the Society for them to care for any more of it, I will continue 

 the account of our trip to the Slim and back to the Batang Padang 

 through the hills. 



