IIS MY TRIP TO BEL CM. 



On the 27th, we broke camp at 7.30 a.m., and reached 

 Kuala Temengor at 2.50. The scenery on the river here is 

 beautiful. We went on up the Temengor river and camped at 

 Dusun Memalik at 3-35. 



The Temengor here is bigger and carries a larger volume 

 of water than the Batang Padang river at Tapah. As we 

 turned into Dusun Memalik, some of our men saw a tiger on 

 the path but it did not visit our camp, having been frightened 

 away probably by our elephants. One of the Chinese cooks 

 was suffering so badly from fever that we sent him down on a 

 raft to Kuala Kendrong, two miles from Grit. He is an opium 

 smoker. 



We wake up on the 28th to rind it raining, and when we 

 broke camp at 8.30 a.m., Berkeley and I walked on to Beru- 

 song, li miles. We waited for the elephants at the turn off of 

 the Temengor path. It is nine miles from there to the village 

 of the Mengkong of Temengor. We followed up the Kelantan 

 path on elephants, the rain having fortunately stopped. 

 There are few more uncomfortable experiences than to travel 

 slowly on elephants when it is raining. Malays say that in 

 elephant travelling there are three things to avoid — darkness, 

 rain and camping near cultivation. 



We had to run the risk of the last of these evils more 

 than once and had to pay trifling sums for what the elephants 

 ate. It is extraordinary that they don't do more damage. 

 They are bathed on arrival at a camp, turned loose with a 

 chain on one leg which they drag about after them, their 

 gembalas (mahout) visit them when near cultivation before 

 dark and find them again at daybreak when they are again 

 bathed and saddled. Their wooden bells {kerotok) and the 

 cracking of bamboos tell their whereabouts, and are the only 

 noises one hears in the stillness of the forest nights. In my 

 walk of H miles to Berusong I picked 34 leeches off my legs, 

 but that was a trifle to what we experienced later. 



Berusong is the field of old gold workings of ages ago, but 

 people still hold land there. That gold is there no one doubts, 

 but the water difficulty prevents systematic working. We 



Jour. Straits Branch 



