2 JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
began rowing up-stream. Breakfasted on the river bank at 
noon, and getting into the great Bernam swamp camped for 
the night at Daha Rul the entrance to the final cutting. The 
banks were so low and wet we did not land, and the dew was 
excessive. This is where the fever was so bad when Mr. J. B. 
M. Lercu was cutting the canals. One of the boatmen sick. 
Tuesday, 14th April.—Started at daylight, having poled 
from midday yesterday. Stopped for breakfast at 12.30 p.m. The 
river here is most lovely, but the district is quite uninhabited and 
uncleared. The upper reaches of the Bernam are wonderful 
in the beauty and variety of water and foliage. It turns out 
that our sick boatman has cholera. I gave him some cholera 
medicine, but he was so frightened that it had no effect; we 
did what we could for him, and at his request sent him back in 
a boat. At 2 p.m. continued our journey and reached Kuala 
Slim at6 p.m., where we found Mr. ButLer (the Acting 
Magistrate) with 39 Sakeis and 80 Malays to carry our bag- 
gage. The Bernam river, by the construction of seven miles 
of canal, could be shortened by about 57 miles of its present 
length, but those canals must be both deep and wide if they 
are to be useful at all times of the year and at all stages of 
the tide, and the question is whether the expenditure neces- 
sary for such a work is at present justifiable. The influence 
of the tide is felt for 80 miles from the mouth of the river. 
Kuala Slim is 120 miles from the mouth of the Bernam river 
by the present channel. 
Wednesday, 15th April-—At 7 a.m., 77° Fahrenheit, the 
aneroid shewed Kuidla Slim to be 120 feet above sea level. 
Having loaded the coolies, left Kuala Slim at 7.20 a.m., and 
after five hours’ walking over a very fair path with no steep 
gradients (the first three miles having been made}, we reach- 
ed Kuala Géliting at 4.15 p.m. Distance 14 miles fro 
Kuala Slim, and 134 from Kuala Bernam. : 
We found Mr. Hitt and Mr. Woopeatz at Kuala Géliting 
waiting to go over the trace of the trunk-road with Mr. 
JONES. 
After dinner, had a long conversation with Haji Mustapna, 
Pénghilu of Ulu Bernam, Saiyid ApusaKar, and Wan Lencea 
of Pahang. They told me they had heard that no rafts had yet 
been prepared at Buntu to take me down the Pahang River, 
