42, EXPEDITION INTO INTERIOR OF SUMATRA. 
men, are the provinces now subject to our administrative 
system. Notwithstanding the researches of the travellers I 
have already mentioned, there remained a wide extent of 
country in the centre of the Island which was still, for the 
most part, 1 not entirely, terra incogmta. 
Lhe maps of this region showed very inaccurately the 
configuration of the ground, the topography of the mountains, 
the courses of the rivers, the geological aspect and fertility 
of the soil, and the facilities for transport by land and 
water. With regard to all this and many other questions of 
ethnography, language and natural history, the works written 
upon Sumatra left the explorer painfully in the dark. Thus 
matters stood when our representative, Colonel VurstEne, 
conceived the idea of exploring these unknown regions. 
Scarcely anything was known of the river, which, with 
its many affluents, traverses Djambi, except that its source 
hes south of the highlands of Padang, and a few other facts 
gathered in the interests of navigation. Djambi, the Sultan 
of which was a nominee of the Netherlands India Govern- 
ment, and where a Netherlands official acted as Political 
Agent, was looked upon as a dependency of the Province 
administered ] by the Resident of Palemibente! 
Djambi was as much unknown to us as Central Africa 
was to our fathers. Nevertheless there was more than one 
reason for desiring more intimate knowledge. Most of the 
Central Districts were celebrated for the beauty of their 
scenery, their unequalled richness of soil and the industry 
and pleasant disposition of their inhabitants. 
In 1869, after the existence of rich seams of coal on the 
banks of the Ombilin ( (the upper Ww aters of the Indragiri) had 
been discovered by Greve, an Hneineer, who died in the 
midst of his labours, serious efforts were made to provide 
means for the transport of this “black gold.” The country 
lying between the coal beds and the West Coast was explored 
by a band of engineers under the orders of M. CLuYsENAER. 
They published a large work and detailed maps, but though 
this was useful from a scientific point of view, the estimated 
cost of constructing < ae working a railway to the West Coast 
was so considerable, that there ‘could be no hope of putting 
such anideainto execution. This, then, was one of the most 
