52 pfcRAK TO SLIM. 



In 1875 we were raising the cover, still only on one side, and 

 peeping inside at the first few pages ; now, though we have still 

 little exact information, we have much to add to our former know- 

 ledge of the peninsula, and especially as regards the western States. 

 We know, for instance, that the Perak river rises in the borders 

 of Kelantan, Kedah, and perhaps Pahang, and, after running a 

 short distance in an easterly direction turns to the South 

 and continues parallel to the coast-line until within a few 

 miles of its mouth, when it turns "West into the Straits of Malacca, 

 about eighty miles South-West of Penang. 



The Bernam river, which, from its junction with the Slim river, 

 runs West to the sea, we now know realty holds a course almost 

 at right angles to the Perak river ; the Slim and Bernam rivers, 

 before their junction, flowing, the former in a north-west, the latter 

 in an south-westerly direction, and draining, the one the Slim, and 

 the other the Ulu Bernam district. 



The combined rivers, known, from their junction, as the Ber- 

 nam river, flow, to use an Hibernicism, in a tortuously direct line 

 to the sea, draining an immense low country, unpeopled and 

 unknown, even to the few Natives who may be called Natives of 

 Bernam. # From the numerous sluggish but considerable rivers 

 which fall into, and help to swell the volume of the Bernam river, 

 the country running from the right bank towards Perak, and the left 

 towards Selangor, must be low, and probably much of it swampy ; 

 whilst the numerous tracks of elephants and rhinoceros leave no 

 doubt that large quantities of big game are found in this district. 



I said our search for information had been confined, for the 

 most part, to the western side of the peninsula, and that is so ; but 

 quite recently, Mr. Bozzolo, for six years a resident in the neigh- 



* Bernam, the name of this District is derived from ^j|^ (Beranam), 



which, means " six together," because the place was so little known and so 

 sparsely populated that the whole number of its inhabitants originally amounted 

 to six. 



