A Vacation Trip to Mt. Kinabalu in North Borneo, 23 



Paka Paka, which has been the highest camp of all those 

 who have climbed the mountain. It is usually spoken of 

 as the cave, but is in reality a slight shelter formed by 

 some huge boulders which have lodged alongside the 

 stream. The latter here comes down at a very sharp angle 

 and plunges over a great precipice a short distance below 

 the cave. It is, of course, a very swift little stream, and 

 the water in it is almost ice cold. The highest tempera- 

 ture recorded at Paka during our stay was 54° at i p. m. 

 The only rain to-day was a few light showers. The cold 

 to-night was extremely uncomfortable, although v/e had 

 a good fire within our shelter. The Dusuns seemed to 

 stand the cold much better than I did, although they did 

 not have nearly such good covering. The altitude of this 

 place is 10,000 feet A. T. 



March 19th. — A bright, cold morning with some frost. 

 Started out about 7 o'clock, taking only those men best 

 qualified to climb. In less than an hour we reached 

 the edge of the bare granite cap of the mountain at about 

 11,000 or 11,500 feet A. T. From here to the top the 

 only vegetation was such as found lodgment in the 

 crevices of the rocks. The leptospermum, which was a 

 tree of about twenty-five or thirty feet in height at 7,500 

 feet, was here a small plant only a few inches in height; 

 but the flowers were of about the same size in both places. 



Before beginning our climb up the steep rocky slope, 

 we had to wait for the Dyak policeman to fire a few 

 volleys with his rifle. This was to apprise the spirit 

 of the mountain that a white man was coming up. 

 The ascent of the rocky slope was not remarkably dif- 

 ficult, though I found it necessary to go on all fours 

 in places, and was occasionally troubled with shortness 

 of breath because of the altitude. The rocky slope ex- 

 tends for about two or two and one-half miles. In places 

 it looks almost like a huge natural amphitheater. It is 

 interrupted here and there by huge rocky pinnacles of va- 

 rious forms. The rock is a gray granite. About 10 o'clock 

 we reached the summit of what seemed to us the highest 



