A PERSONAL LLIDNXAISA.M IB OF GtfNOlfG TAII AX. 



85 



to reach (he Barrier Mountain by this route.* Our store of rice was 

 now sufficient for a few days only ami there seemed no alternative but 

 to return. Before we did so, however, we extemporised a flag by 

 fastening an old sarong to the top branches of one of the tamerisk 

 trees and then climbed laboriously down to our camp of the night 

 before, which we reached in two or three hours. f Perhaps, on the 

 whole, the best way to give an idea of the formation of this part of the 

 range would be to describe it as exhibiting a " gigantic trough-fault," 

 the eastern ridge lying between the flagged peak and the Barrier 

 Mountain (Uunong Tahan), having dropped solidly down for a con- 

 siderable depth, leaving ragged and precipitous (and in many places 

 overhanging) cliffs at each of the ends from which it had broken 

 away. The cliffs at the mountain end are mostly overhanging ami 

 hence there underlies it a considerable amount of detritus (or " screes "), 

 which at several points rise to within a few feet of the summit of 

 the cliffs, but never reach so high as to make them accessible, J At 

 the nearer end, under the flagged peak, the cliffs were, as I have said, 

 so steep that I determined to descend and make an attempt to circum- 

 vent them at their base rather than take the risk of adhering to the 

 summit route. This was particularly disappointing, because just at 

 the top of the cliff above us we could see the central peak of the 

 Barrier Mountain, which, as I have already said, appeared to be the 

 highest peak from every point of view and which, if the highest, must 

 have been the summit of G-unong Tahan itself. § Moreover, the highest 

 point of the screes which we reached must, I should say, have been 

 within 300 ft. of the summit of this peak. It was nightfall when we 

 got back and once more we spent a terrible and sleepless night, a 

 terrific storm with appalling crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning 

 raging about the solitary peak on which we had taken shelter. 

 The ground was uneven and nothing would keep the rain from flood- 

 ing the tent, whilst the bitter cold crept into our bones and was 

 enhanced by the sodden state of our clothes. Next morning we 

 started down hill following our old trail and having descended as far 

 as the outer- shaped hollow, of which I spoke before, broke off from 

 our old trail and turned to the north. Again starting up hill by 

 dint of incredible labour we reached the sunken part of the ridge 

 (the "trough") before dark. 



This Hank move having proved so far successful, I was in great 

 hopes that we might reach the top of the Barrier Mountain itself by 

 the end of next day, but the length of the sunken ridge, or " trough, " 



* This route was the one followed by us ; it is quite practicable with the aid 

 of ladders or notched poles in the worst places. 



f Remains of this flag were found by our party. 



X Mr. Skeat was unfortunate in his search ; there are at least half a dozen 

 places within half a mile of where the " sunken ridge 1 1 its the Barrier Mountain," 

 where ascent is possible, though a steady head and light loads are necessary. 



§ The true top is at least two miles in a bee line from fiis summit saparated 

 by very broken ground and a valley over 1,000 ft. deep. 



