106 THE ENDAU AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



as very extensive, and so full of dense undergrowth and rattans, 

 that it had never been penetrated. 



Just North of where we came upon it, the Panggong bifurcated, 

 itself flowing northward, till it joined the Meletir, while the other 

 branch, which was the source of the Batu Pahat Sembrong, flowed at 

 first westward and then northward for some distance parallel with 

 the Panggong. making a series of curious loops called by the Malays 

 simpei or hoops. A Malay once thought he would facilitate the 

 communication between the two sides of the Peninsula by cutting 

 a channel which should connect the Sembrong (Batu Pahat) and 

 the Panggong, but he had no sooner set to work than he was taken 

 ill, which was a clear warning that the powers of the jungle were 

 unfavourable to his undertaking, and he accordingly abandoned it. 

 After the simpei the Sembrong and Panggong flow westward 

 and eastward, towards the Batu Pahat and Meletir, respectively. 

 It will be seen, from what has been stated above, that if we consider 

 the swamp as water, the space between the Panggong and the 

 Meletir may be regarded as an island. Though the names change 

 before Ave reach the source, it is clear that the two Sembrongs have 

 a common source, afterwards separating ; and though they may 

 thus be said to be originally one and the same stream, yet it was 

 hardly in this way that they were regarded by Logan, who seems 

 to have looked upon them as a sort of canal across the Peninsula ; 

 whereas really they issue as one stream from a swamp on rising- 

 ground and bifurcate immediately afterwards. None the less, of 

 course, is Johor, literally speaking, an island. 



Having satisfied myself on these points, and being pressed for 

 time, I gave up the idea of going to the simpei, and we made our way 

 back to Pengkalan Tongkes and reached Kenalau in the middle of 

 the afternoon. Started on our return journey about noon the fol- 

 lowing day, the 27th, and reached the Kwala Sembrong Station just 

 before 11 p.m. on the 28th, i.e., did in thirty-five hours a distance 

 we had taken five and a half days to cover in the ascent ! — forty-two 

 hours actually on the way. 



About 9 p.m. on the 29th, I started down the Endau to take the 

 course from the mouth up to the Station which I had been unable 

 to do on the way up. I returned on the afternoon of the 31st, 

 having succeeded in my object, At the Padang Police Station, or 



