IN SUMATHJ, 



217 



iiave been a whit worse off had the copy been less minutely 

 imitated. 



In the beginning of July I packed my Lmiiing and con- 

 tinued my journey to Batu Pantjeh, gliding down the river 

 by this delightful mode of travel, which enabled me, carrying 

 mj drying-paper and frames with me, to botanise all along 

 the river-side, stopping when and where I desired, 



Kear this village, the coimtry became much lower on both 

 sides, showing that we were approaching the borders of the 

 great alluvial plateau of Palembang, Among my excursions I 

 suddenly came one day on a wide area, iu the deep forest, 

 overspread with coral blocks, which in some places had become 

 solidified into more or less crystalline masses like what one 

 sees in the basework of a coral reef. It was eviilent that they 

 were standing, as left centuries ago by the seashore where 

 they were wtished through and round aliout by the surf; 

 here corroded into crevices and bored by molluscs, and there 

 excavated into deep pits, and surrounded with blocks of worn 

 stones as if the tide had not long retreated from this old shore 

 to-day distant as the crow flies 200 miles from the coast, Kow, 

 however, great trees were shadowing them, and gigantic figs 

 twining their roots among their grateful crannies ; ferns clothed 

 with graceful fronds the wasted blocks, and Begonias blossome<l 

 over them. To alter Tennyson's well-known lines 



There rollM the tieep where grows the tree» 



O earth, whftt changes hast thou tseen ! 

 There where the forest sleeps hath been 



The shore l ine of I he noisy *fea. 



I was detained here, by an injury to my foot, tor many 

 weeks much against my will, for the half pagan half Maho- 

 medan people of the Ampat Lawang iu unpleasant contrast 

 to those of the other regions I had been among, wero any- 

 thing but friendly. They would neither give nor sell food 

 of any description, except a little old rice of the worst quality, 

 They even refused to carry my letters, so that I was unable to 

 make kno wn my condition to the authorities or obtain relief ^till 

 I was wpII enough to resume my journey to conipluin in person, 

 when the chief of the village was rewarded according to his 

 deeds by the Stagistrate, 



The Batu Pantjeh houses are of a peculiar construction, com- 



