A PERSONAL BBCONNAISANCE OF GUNONG TAHAN. 83 



shut off the view to the north-west and towered above us like a wall. 

 And next (the seventh) morning we started in that direction, with the 

 object of climbing it in order to see what was beyond. Climbing up 

 by a circuitous track, which took us round the outside edge of a crater- 

 shaped hollow on the mountain's flank, we reached this mountain much 

 sooner than we expected, as we thought we should certainly have to 

 cross an intervening valley. Bain fell frequently during the day and 

 for the greater part of the time we were groping our way through 

 blind baffling fogs, which would shift from time to time to show us a 

 higher peak than the one we had reached. Still we had got our proper 

 bearings and by dogged perseverance by the end of the day we had 

 reached the skyline of the main eastern range of what, according to 

 information subsequently obtained (to which I shall refer after- 

 wards), must, I think, have been Gunong Tahan. This range * running, 

 generally speaking, in a N.N.-W. direction climbs steeply up crag by 

 crag till it unites, almost at right angles with what I may call the 

 Great Barrier Mountain, whose central peak was the highest visible 

 from every point of view r , both on this and all succeeding days. On 

 the opposite side of the valley, its green sides seared and scarred witJi 

 precipices, rose another great range (the western range), stretching 

 approximately in the same direction as that whereon we stood, and 

 climbing similarly, peak by peak skywards until it terminated, in a 

 lofty summit exactly opposite Gunong Tahan. f This western moun- 

 tain, beyond which the western range descends again plain wards and 

 whose highest peak must be little short of Gunong Tahan in height, 

 should, according to information subsequently given me, be Gunong 

 Larong or " Coffin " mountain, a fitting name for the compeer of Gunong 

 Tahan. These two great peaks— Gunong Tahan and Gunong Larong — 

 appear from this point as if they completely blocked the head of the 

 valley (as the Malays say that they do); J 



The ridge we had reached, and on which we were camped fur the 

 night, was a narrow deeply-gapped, saw-like edge, in some places not 

 more than a few feet wide, sloping precipitously to the bottom of the 

 valley on our right. Most of its peaks, save for a few firs and 

 tanierisks, were bare on the top and in many places we came upon 

 outcrops of rock.§ 



The next morning, being at first clear, we had an unrivalled 

 panorama of the great hill-systems that here furrow the country as 



* This range must be the one I have marked in my map as running from 

 " Skeat's Camp" through "Observation Hill" to the foot of the cliffs on Gunong 

 Siam, which is here called the " Great Barrier Mountain." — H. C. R. 



f Apparently the mountain to which, on my map, I have ascribed the name 

 Gunong Ulu Kcchau from information supplied by natives. — H. C. R. 



X This is not quite correct. The two ranges converge, but at the head of the 

 valley stands the highest peak of all, the true Gunong Tahan (marked " C " on 

 Mr. Skeat's map), separated from both the lateral ranges by tleep vallevs. — 

 11. C. K. 



§ The vegetation, though undoubtedly scanty, is thicker than this passage 

 indicates. 



