$6 AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



our search for the path, to find a turtle weighing some 45 lbs. 

 feeding in a marsh by the river. He seemed sadly astonished 

 when the two men started to remove his breast plate, but he 

 ought to have congratulated himself on escaping the sad fate 

 of the small land tortoise which is invariably cooked by being 

 hung over a fire and roasted alive. 



The rain continued all night, and next morningf the river 

 was so flooded that we could not cross it. So a council was 

 held and we determined to build a raft of bamboos with which to 

 proceed down the river, although NUAN objected sadly to trust 

 himself to the mercy of the river spirit. By four o'clock over 

 forty bamboos had been cut, lashed together in three tiers, 

 so that the raft had rather the appearance of a rather broad 

 ladder. We were anxious to test its capabilities, and foolishly 

 started that night. It went swiftly and smoothly along the 

 flooded stream until a difference of opinion between NuAN 

 and MOUNG See landed it broadside on a small island in the 

 middle of the stream, and in a moment we were over and in 

 the water. Luckily I had tied everything to the raft with the 

 exception of my only pair of shoes, and when the raft was 

 righted we found they were gone and everything soaking wet. 

 Darkness came down, so we moored. The rain was constant; 

 our clothes, blankets and matches wet; and the best piece of 

 ground we could get was damp and marshy, so that we longed 

 all night for the light of morning. 



The country now became covered with jungle-clad ranges 

 of hills, set closely together, separated only by the narrowest 

 ravines, and rising up some 500 feet or more. These hills ran 

 right across the course of the river, so that it seemed to dash 

 against the first range, then eddying along its flanks burst 

 through the first vulnerable point it reached and dashed against 

 the next range, where it again searched for and found an exit, 

 and so bounding and turning, rushing and eddying, it at last 

 burst through this hilly country and sailed out on the flatter 

 country beyond. It took us a day and an half to get through 

 this tortuous channel, sixteen hours punting at 2\ miles an 

 hour, so that to reach a point some fifteen miles distant as the 

 crow flies we had to cover about forty. 



