GUNONG TAHAN AND GUNONG RIAM. 15 
TAHAN AS A’ HILL-STATION. 
This comparison of routes leads on to the question of the utili- 
ty of the Tahan Range as a hill-station. In an appendix to the 
account of the 1905 expedition in Vol. iii-of the Journal of the 
E_.M.S. Museums, I ventured to say that the range would make an 
ideal health station (p. 74). A reviewer found the remark a source 
of humour at the time, but now that the establishment of a health- 
station is actually being discussed, my critic, if still in the country, 
has probably changed his mind. Anyone who knows the cramped 
conditions of our existing hill stations would see quickly the enor- 
mous advantages of the Tahan Range; the great expanse of open 
and comparatively flat country, the elevation (between 4,000-5,000 
feet), and the abundance of water. Instead of a monotonous walk 
along the same jungle paths day after day, shut in by huge trees, 
on the Tahan highland a delightful holiday would be possible 
roaming over a fair substitute for moors. Perhaps distance has 
tended to lend enchantment since 1906, but others who have visited 
the range seem to be of the same opinion as myself, with the result 
that, as already stated, the establishment of a hill-station is being 
discussed. The feasibility of the plan depends on the extension 
of the Pahang Railway, and I hope that that extension will pass 
between the Cherual limestone hills and the Tahan Range, con- 
necting with a funicular railway up to the highlands. 
GUNONG RIAM 
Gunong Tahan, far away from roads and, at present, from a 
~ railway, has been visited by few Europeans, and even seen by few 
Europeans. Gunong Riam, better known «as Gunong Kerbau, on 
the other hand, is a familiar sight to dwellers in Kinta, raising its 
sharply outlined ridge high above the little town of Tanjong 
Rambutan and plainly visible from the greater part of the district. 
He would be an unobservant traveller, who on a clear day failed to 
notice its giant form while passing Tanjong Rambutan in the mail- 
train. 
Although deprived of its pride of placeas the supposed highest 
mountain in the Peninsula, Gunong Riam always attracted me as a 
climb for several reasons, and in February of this year (1912) I 
made the ascent. Since my trip to Tahan I had climbed Ulu Kali 
in Selangor and Berembun in Perak, but a long interval had elapsed 
since the last long mountain trip, which perhaps was the reason 
that I relied on a Malay Penghulu to make necessary preparations 
for me at Tanjong Rambutan, so that I might go to the town by 
train and start up the mountain without delay. -The Penghulu was 
approached through the proper channel and promised to have a 
» guide, men, and elephants ready on a certain day... I had been told 
that elephants were always taken part of the way and therefore 
asked the Penghulu to hire them, although travelling with them is 
to court misery. On the appointed day I proceeded to Tanjong 
R.A Soc., No. 62, 1912, 
