162 



A NATUIiAJJST'S WANDEniNOS 



difficult one than I had anticipated. I could find nobody to 

 accompany me who had ever traversed the roa<l before, or 

 who conld give me the lemt information as to the distrtnee 

 between their own last village and Batu-hrah, the nearest in 

 the Kroe district. The road at its commencement lay ahjng 

 the ttiangnlar plain occupying the cleft where the Barisan 

 Monn tains branch to form the eastern and western boundaries 

 of the bay. Reaching in the afternoon the village of 8angi, 

 at tlie confluence of the Samung with the Semangka, I en- 

 camped for the night in its Balai, 



Next morning, crossing the Samfing in small pralms, accom- 

 panied by twenty-five porters I proceeded along the i.-asteni 

 bank of the Semangka, As its stream, where at length the 

 path crossed to the opposite side, was running with a very swift 

 current and was nearly six feet deep, a difficult obstacle was 

 presented to our progress. An hour was lost in building a raft, 

 and a second in transp<u'tiiig the baggage. As the last pack- 

 ages, luckily for us, were being bntught over rain began to fall, 

 and within an hour of its commencemeut it would have been 

 impossible to have crossed. The river nins between hills 

 which lor fifty miles rise very abruptly from its banks, and aug- 

 mented by contributory streaicis rushing down steep, boulder- 

 studded sloi>es, it swells with great suddenness. Over these 

 violent side-torrents every bundle had to be transported by 

 many carriers, each holding it by one hand, and steadying 

 himself by grasping his neighbour with the other. In this 

 operation sevenil narrow escapes occurred ; for, once losing 

 foothold, no human aid could have prevented one from being 

 swept into the main stream, boiling and roaring ptist in some 

 places 150 feet below us, and often thirty yartis in breadth. 



The track was of the worst character possible, being ob> 

 fitnicted by fallen trees and buge blocks of stone, and in many 

 places obliterated by landslips, and often, where the distance 

 between the trees was not sufficiently wide to admit between 

 them the larger packages, a halt had to be made for the 

 ol>structing stems to be felled. Our intended halt for the 

 nigbt was a forest hut ; but none of my convoy knew where or 

 how far distant it was, if it existed at all. As the day wore on 

 I became very anxious, for tigers abounded, and we had been 

 crossing and following the fresh tracks of a herd of elephants 



