AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS. 



165 



The country, north of Quedah peak, is an immense plain, nearly level 

 trith the sea, covered near the coast with rising mangrove, with a very 

 gentle elevation, and bounded to the east by a small chain of hills about 

 from sixteen to twenty miles inland. The breadth of the belt of mangrove 

 along the coast varies from half a mile to a mile. This is succeeded by a 

 narrower one of ataps, behind which the country is richly cultivated, laid 

 out in rice grounds, broken every two or three miles by natural boundaries 

 of forest, left most probably when it was originally cleared. The soil is 

 a rich whitish clay, mixed with sand. From the above described plain, 

 at a distance of about six miles from the sea, and about twenty-four in a 

 northerly direction from the northernmost Piilo Booriting, rises abruptly 

 the Elephant rock ; no hill or other elevated spot being within several miles 

 of it. It is of an oblong shape, apparently about a mile in length from 

 north-west to south-east, and half a mile in breadth : presenting on every 

 side bold and craggy precipices, between three and four hundred feet in 

 height ; lofty columnar and needle-like masses being here and there 

 detached from the main body, and shooting up like the spires or turrets of a 

 Cathedral. Tlie top is closely covered with wood, which also rises in some 

 places half way up the precipice, shewing the grey or purplish rocks, in 

 contrast with the foliage, and adding much to its beautiful and romantic 

 appearance. The ground in its immediate neighbourhood is a complete 

 swamp, in which grow a variety of marsh plants which were at this time in 

 flower. A belt of cocoanuts, plantain, betel-nut, and fruit trees of various 

 kinds, extends all round it, and conceals the huts of the Malays M'hich 

 appear to be numerous. A deep ditch, either artificial or natural, surrounds 

 the whole, and renders the approach to the rock extremely diHicult, even 

 to elephants, with which the Rajah of Ligoie had kindly furnished us. 



It was the object of our guides to shew us the caves Avith which 



the rock abounds, and which, when Qnednli was of greater consequence 



than it now is, made it a place of common resort for the natives, more 



'1 r 



