BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO GUNONG JERAI. 23 



A Botanical Excursion to Gunong 

 Jerai. (Kedah Peak.) 



By H. N. Ridley. 



The great isolated mountain commonly known as Kedah 

 Peak, which forms so conspicuous an object in the view from 

 Penang, has been several times ascended by Europeans, but as 

 far as I am aware no account of it has been published. The 

 following description of its ascent may therefore be useful to 

 those who intend to scale it. 



I left Penang on June 4th, 1893, in the "Rosebud" launch, 

 accompanied by Mr. Curtis, intending' to make the ascent from 

 the village of Yan, which lies at the foot of the mountain and is 

 the best starting point, though there is another route from the 

 Merbau river. The weather was very bad and when we had 

 arrived opposite Yan, a heavy squall came up and we had to fly 

 for shelter to Pulau Song-song, where the water was deep and 

 quiet. With some difficulty, owing to the strong headwind and 

 dense rain which completely hid the view, we managed to get 

 under lee of the island, and shortly after the rain abated we 

 determined as it was rather late to spend the night at Pulau 

 Song-song, especially as the surf was breaking heavily on the 

 coast and would make it difficult for us to land the baggage 

 from the boats. We therefore landed on the island and took up 

 our quarters in a native hut. The village is small and the in- 

 habitants gain their living by catching and curing fish and by 

 collecting turtle eggs. The island is rocky, the prevailing rock 

 being clay ironstone with ferruginous sands and clays. It is 

 thickly wooded with fairly large trees, among which were Swin- 

 tonia spicifera and Anisoptera Ourtisii, both in fruit. The former 

 appeared very abundant and was very conspicuous on account of 

 its masses of red- winged fruits, but the trees were too tall for 

 us to secure good specimens. Strolling along the shore we 



