84 



TAHAN EXPEDITION. 



far as the eye can see. Some of the more distant ranges must have 

 been nearly a hundred miles away and yet their outlines were clear 

 and sharp. About twenty miles to the eastward was a stretch of 

 comparatively flat country, in the midst of which stood out distinctly 

 a big limestone hill,* with a smaller one to the left of it ; the limestone 

 glittering in the sun with splendid effect. From many thousands of 

 feet below came the sound of falling waters, ahead of us almost within 

 shouting distance, lay the untrodden heights of the Barrier Mountain, 

 the object of our search, whilst at the head of the valley on our left 

 the Tahan, or one of its tributary streams, flashed white on the 

 mountain side as it fell headlong down to the rocky valley, many 

 hundreds of feet below.f We spent a wet, cold and comfortless night 

 here, and, my trousers being badly burnt in an attempt to dry them, 

 1 had henceforward to go in rags. 



The general direction, or " run, " of these ranges is not unlike that 

 of the Tahan ranges, as shown on the new r map, with the single 

 exception of the omission of the eastern peak, opposite the one 

 described on the map as Gunong Tahan. With the insertion of this 

 second peak, the new map might be taken to give a fairly accurate 

 idea of this part. If anything at all is certain of the range, it is that 

 there are two of these peaks in the positions I have described. It is 

 also absolutely certain that the Tahan River has at least one big 

 tributary, near its head waters, the tributary by following which we 

 drifted back into the Tahan on our way back — a tributary, however, 

 which was of almost equal size with the Tahan itself.^ There are 

 besides one or two other very big tributaries some days' journey 

 up the stream, above S. Tenok. I may perhaps add that the Tahan 

 valley is quite unmistakable, when it is viewed from our camp site on 

 the eastern range. There is no rumour of any other valley in the 

 immediate neighbourhood that can be confidently declared to be 

 thousands of feet deep and that culminates in two such peaks as those 

 I have described. § 



We now started up the range through torrents of rain and fog and 

 continued climbiug until we reached a peak some hundreds of feet 

 higher than our camp site of the night before. || This peak was 

 also bare and covered with tamerisks. Beyond it the range broke oft' 

 in an abrupt and precipitous cliff and we found after several attempts 

 to descend by climbing down from tree to tree that it was impossible 



* Also noted by us and by Waterstradt from a mountain much further to the 

 north-east, which he considered to be Gunong Tahan. 



f Marked on my map as on one of the lateral streams. — II. C. E. 

 X The Teku River. 



§ As a matter of fact, the whole of this valley is that of the Teku and not 

 the Tahan, which takes a wide sweep to the north east and rises on the opposite 

 face of the " Barrier Mountain. " 



|| " Observation Hill, " about % of a mile further on. 



