S KELANTAN AND GUNONG TAB AN. 



follow me when I wanted to try and get up from where we 

 were, I had to give it up, though I myself believed it to be pos- 

 sible : and, as after events showed me, it proved to have been the 

 easiest and nearest route to the top. However I made up my 

 mind to return to Kota Bahru and get up another expedition 

 up the Galas river ; so I returned to the village Buntie with a 

 few of the Sakais, leaving the rest of them together with niy 

 Mala}'s and all our provisions on the mountain; as we had found 

 a number of rare birds there, and I was desirous of getting 

 some more of them. I told my men that they must try and 

 find an easier way to Tahan, and if they succeeded in this they 

 were to wait for me near the top of the mountain. I may as 

 well mention here that some time after I left, my men did rind a 

 Avay up Gunong Tahan, and stayed there for some time waiting 

 for me ; but I never met them, as it took me a much longer 

 time to get up the mountain by the Galas route than I expected, 

 and so at last they returned down towards the coast by the same 

 way as they got there. The trip back to Kota Bahru occupied 

 ten days, and I had to wait there another month before I got 

 new provisions and material up from Singapore for my next ex- 

 pedition. When these at last arrived a new start Avas made but 

 this time I grot rather a poor lot of boatmen, the Rajah having 

 lent most of his best men to Messrs. Duff and Lathy en who went 

 up stream just before me to prospect for gold. It therefore 

 took me six days to get up to Quala Lebch, and there I found the 

 above gentlemen busy prospecting the river bed, having with 

 them a great number of coolies. This time I went past Quala 

 Lebeh, following the true Kelantan river, and in four days reached 

 Quala Galas, where we were detained a short time, owing to the 

 river being in flood. AVe passed several small tributaries on the 

 way, most of them being uninhabited, being the Rajah's rattan 

 preserves. Once in five to six years he farms each of these rivers 

 out to some of tin.' Chinese traders in Kota Bahru, who then collect 

 all the rattans and other jungle produce, and after that nobody 

 is allowed to touch anything for the next five to six years, thus 

 giving the rattans a chance of growing to a fair size before 

 fchey are again cut down. We then proceeded up the Galas, 

 which a short distance from its Quala is only about 50 yards 

 wide, and gets narrower farther up. and full of rapids. There 



