GUNONG TAHAN AND GUNONG RIAM. li 
placed, and as there were no mosquitos, the inability to hang up a. 
net inside them did not matter. But we were closely packed, and 
when Jeher suddenly leapt up the first night, yelling “ we're sink- 
ing, we're sinking, Allah help us, we're lost entirely’ or words to 
that effect, we all woke up in alarm. But only that once. Jeher 
had nightmares every “night afterwards, being chased by dragons, 
crushed by irate Jins, or falling over precipices, but he got no 
sympathy. The first yell was the signal for an onslaught by the 
remainder of the party that must have made his waking dreams 
very realistic. 
The other remarkable thing about the Tatian River is that some 
one once announced he had counted the rapids and made them 
99. This makes the head swim with wonder, first that anyone 
should think of counting the rapids at all, secondly, how he found 
out where one rapid ended and another began, and thirdly why he 
did not make the number 100. There is a story that another tra- 
veller shot a gibbon on the banks of the Tahan River and was puni- 
shed by the Jins with madness which caused him to take his clothes 
off (where he took them off, or when, is not stated). Perhaps the 
counter of rapids committed a similar crime and was punished by 
being afflicted with a hypersensitive conscience which forbade him — 
to-reach the country. 
Having arrived at Kuala Teku we found two men belouging to 
a party of Survey Coolies who had started up the mountain that 
day with a Trigonometrical beacon to be erected on the summit. One 
of the men left behind at the Kuala was suffering from dysentery. 
Fortunately I had a few tins of milk with me which I left with him, 
and, whether it was the milk that cured him or not, was glad to find 
on my return that he was well. We slept the night at Kuala Teku, 
and on the following morning started up to the first camp. This 
was a very short march, and I am convinced that the ascent of the 
mountain by this route could be done in shorter time by. going far- 
ther the first day ; but it had become the recognised thing to halt 
after only three hours climb, the excuse being water difficulties, and 
I was not in a position then to tell the men that we could reach 
water farther on. 
The ascent to the first camp, where there was a large shed, 
erected by the 1905 expedition, is steep and somewhat slippery. 
This was the cause of.an amusing and unusual sight. The survey 
coolies who had gone ahead of us had been warned that- they should 
wear boots on account of the bare rocks on the high. plateau- land of 
the range. They started with boots, but Houndered about to such 
an extent on this soft slippery ground that they took. them off, and, 
instead of carrying them with them, left them, hanging in the trees, 
a piece of folly that they bitterly regretted when they reached the 
top of the range. One man, I learned, was so overcome by having 
to carry an iron support while walking unshod over bare rocks, with 
abundant sharp quartz crystals, that he sat down and wept. I re- 
member a similar occurence near Kuantan, when a Malay whom I 
R. A. Soc., No. 62, 1912. 
