MY VISIT TO KLIAN INTAN. 145 



Government. Che Mat Deli gave us dinner, and after dinner 

 we witnessed a capital Mayong (theatrical performance). 



Che Mat Deli provided me with a comfortable Government 

 boat and gave me a Kedah Sergeant and constable as escort. 

 We left at 7.45 a.m. on the 16th June down river, Wan Husein 

 still with us. We reached Kuala Kupang at 10.15 a.m. There 

 is a village here, and one of the Kedah Eajas is in charge 

 (Tungku Eda), but he had gone to Kedah on account of the 

 death of his father, the famous Tungku dia Udin. Che Mat 

 Deli left us to return to Baling, and we went on downstream. 

 We tied up for the night at a place called Padang Pulai. All 

 this part of Kedah, as far as the eye can see and right down 

 to Kuala Muda, consists of flat plains, and they would carry an 

 immense population if irrigated. 



We continued our journey at 5.35 a.m. on the 17th June. 

 At 7.15 we reached Kuala Ketil and entered the Muda 

 river, a magnificent sheet of water navigable up to this point 

 by launches of 40 tons. I landed and visited the Police 

 Station, where the Kedah Government keeps a Sergeant and 

 six men, because the people were a thieving lot and used to 

 rob stores while being taken out of big boats, which bring them 

 up the Muda river, to be loaded into smaller boats, which take 

 them up the Ketil river to Baling. From Baling goods are 

 humped by coolies, Hi miles to the mines, a climb of 850 feet. 

 Owing to this expensive transport, every pikul of stuff used at 

 the mines costs $8 more than its market price in Penang. 



The Ketil river is one of the most winding I have come 

 across, the turns and bends often come right back on each 

 other. It is swift running and is full of snags. It takes six 

 nights to go up from Kuala Ketil to Baling, and when the 

 river is high it may take ten or eleven nights. 



A perfectly flat road can undoubtedly be made on the 

 proper left bank of the Muda river, to cross the Hetil river 

 about a mile below Kuala Kupang to a point about 1? or 2 miles 

 above Baling. It would then climb over one pass into Padang 

 Niring Todok and over another pass behind that place into 

 Sungei Buloh (the site of Mr. Pearse's dam), and thence into 

 R. A.Soc, No. 54i 19C9. 



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