IN SUMATRA. 



215 



I was forced to draw my tent-poles in the end of May, so as to 

 reach Batavia in the boginiiiug of the year 1882 in order to 

 prepare for my long-planned expedition to the Far East of the 

 Arckipelago. 



It was with the liveliest regret that I took leave of the 

 village of Pan, where I had experienced more pleitsure than 

 in any other locality I hacl yet visited. The climate was 

 simply delicious. Every forenoon, at least, was bright and 

 sunny, and the heat was never too great to be oppressive or 

 disagreeable, while the evenings were cool and the nirjhts cold 

 enough to make a blanket enjoyable. Sickness was uevcr 

 once thought abont. Altogether, but for the difficulties of 

 food supply and companionship I could have wished to reside 

 there always. In its neighbourhood I liad gathered nnnie- 

 roiis interesting birds and insects- I had added Astidopterm 

 arnmtm to the fauna of Sumatra, obtained Papilio diajihantuSf 

 Limim'iis hochiy and added to science Lrias Jlampetinisy and 

 species of Ten'as^ Danais, and KalUnia and many of the rarest 

 and most beautiful productions of the vegetable kingdom, 

 especially of the giant trees and among the Orchidaeeas and 



Hetracing my steps to Pagar Alam, I took my way north- 

 eastward, and, crossing the Ayer Durian which has its source 

 in the crater of the Demp<>, passed out of the Ptissumah 

 Lands towards the ICaba. Reaching Gunung Bleraksa, in the 

 cleft of the Eight and Left Lintang rivers, I learned that I 

 might shorten my way to Tebbing-tinggi by taking a raft 

 journey on the river— a mode of travel I had not before tried. 

 These rafts, made of tiers of bamboo well secured together by 

 pegs and rattan ropes, with an elevated platform in the centre 

 out of the reach of water, are guided by two pilots with 

 long oars. The Lintang river was very rough and narrow, 

 interrupted at short distances by rapids over which it required 

 the greatest skill and knowledge of its rocks to guide us in 

 safety. We sailed mostly between perpendicular banks of 

 rough marls of Miocene age, against whose cliffs in many 

 places the river, descending a stony ra[jid, precipittxted itself, 

 sweeping round Its base at a right angle. The danger lay in 

 the raft*a not obeying the working of the steersman's long stem- 

 paddle, and being dashed to pieces at these uncanny corners 



