JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY PENINSULA. 29 
and only high enough to sit up on the floor, where the ther- 
mometer registers from 92° to 95° for several hours in 
each day, where rats, scorpions, centipedes, and other ver- 
min abound, and where the crew are too close to be agreeable 
in this climate, is an experience which forces its drawbacks on 
the notice of the traveller, in spite of the loveliest scenery and 
situations which are often more picturesque tnan pleasant. 
One result of these circumstances is that, ever since we started, 
not less than twenty per cent. of our party have been on the 
sick list, the medicine chest has proved invaluable, and, consi- 
dering how often its dangerous contents have been drawn upon, 
it is surprising that, with so much liberality and so little skill, 
no particular harm has been done. The man and woman who 
died of cholera were never under my treatment, [ am glad to 
say, and since leaving Séger we have heard nothing more of 
cholera. 
Wednesday, 6th May.—Went ashore early this morning, 
and shot a couple of peacock and a brace of jungle fowl. It 
is certainly rather an astonishing sight to see peacock flying 
about or sitting on the dead stumps of an old clearing. I also 
saw a snipe, which is rather remarkable at this time of year 
and after such a drought; the ground he was in was hard ‘and 
dry as a highroad. ‘lhe tide is curious here, it was falling 
when we arrived at 4 p.m. yesterday, it fell a good deal lower, 
and at midnight some of our boats were high and dry ; 
5 aM. they they were still in the same position, but at 8 a.m. 
the tide. began to rise, and at 2 p.m. it was nearly up to the 
top of the jak 
At that hour, on the top of high water, four large barges 
appeared round the point which hides the Yam Tfan’s place 
from us, and in a few minutes reached us. They were all 
crowded with rowers and chiefs who invited us to take our 
seats in the largest boat, a long two-storeyed barge with twen- 
ty-two rowers clad in yellow jackets, sarongs and white 
trousers. Half an hour’s paddling carried us over the two 
miles of water, and we landed at the stairs in front of the 
Yam Ttan’s house, an immense crowd of well dressed Malays 
lining the steps, the bank of the river and both sides of the 
road from the jetty down to the gate of the reception hall, 
where a double line of spearmen waited and conducted us to 
