82 



TAHAN EXPEDITION. 



Heavy rains had fallen during the previous day, and all our things 

 were wet through, so that it took us more than three hours next 

 morning to dry them and we did not get off till a little before nine. 

 A towel, which I had been using to wrap round the rotan lashings of 

 the tent which I was carrying, had been packed up by mistake and, 

 as we were already late, I went without it, the sharp edges of the rotan 

 cords, however, making it somewhat painful work. This day I deter- 

 mined to repeat the experiment of the day before and make for the top 

 of the ridge, the result being that about noon we found ourselves on 

 the top of a lofty crag, which, after the cutting of a couple of vistas 

 through the low scrub on the top, gave us across a wide but flat and 

 swampy-looking valley of perhaps some miles breadth, a magnificent 

 view of the Tahan valley and lower ranges, the loftiest summits being 

 wrapped in storm-clouds. This view gave us a good general idea of 

 the relative position and direction of the hills here, and we then des- 

 cended once more to the Tahan and, after about an hour's climbing 

 along the underhang of its (here) precipitous banks, reached a level 

 spot, where we camped for the night. The next day was perhaps one 

 of the most trying that we experienced on the trip. Tremendous rain 

 had made the rocks and steep hill sides so slippery that it was often 

 very difficult to find a secure footing, while the jungle appeared more 

 intertangled and impenetrable than ever. Progress being very slow, 

 I kept the men at work till night when we had to camp on the only 

 clear ground we could fiud at the bottom of a small land slide on the 

 left bank of the Tahan, which had carried before it all the vegetation 

 in its course from the mountain. 



Next (the sixth) morning, after sending two of the men out for 

 some preliminary scouting, we climbed up, following the course of the 

 land slide and thence gaining the skyline, found a wild-beast track 

 there, which turned out to be the best trail met with during the entire 

 trip. We followed it up till late in the afternoon, climbing always at 

 a good round pace and, as it was nowhere very steep, we must have 

 covered fully eight miles before we stopped for the night. My object 

 had been from the first not to climb Gunong Tahan, but, as far as 

 possible, to locate it ; and this object I now hoped to attain by ascend- 

 ing two or three crags (like the one we had ascended the previous 

 day). The highest peak of Gunong Tahan, as shown in the latest 

 map, appears rather as a continuation of the range on the western side 

 of the Tahan valley, and I hoped to get a better view of it by climbing 

 up to a commanding point on the eastern range. The density of the 

 jungle, however, obscured the view and each successive peak of the 

 ridge led us on, will-o'-the-wisp fashion, to another which was always 

 just a little higher. Hence we continued to climb rapidly and at a 

 little past two we met with our first specimen of the mountain fir 

 (" rhu gunong "), which, I believe, does not occur at a height much 

 under 3,000 ft. Still the ridge took us higher and higher and 

 about 3.30 p.m. we camped for the night. Before we encamped, 

 however, we had caught sight of the flank of a big mountain, which 



