JN SUMATRA, 



225 



OHAPTEB Viri 



SOJOFBN IK THE PALEMBANG RESIDENCY — Continued, 



Le^ve Tandj(Hi<r-Nins — Padan? Ulftk-Tainljcm*; — -Kepak Tjurup — ^ Hot 

 springs of the Kaba— Eartliqnake — Boteaical feai area— Curious plant*— 

 Fertilisation of Melastoma — A pU;]rrimage— The crater of the Kaba— The 

 Nora.Miic Kiibiis — Rapit river scenery— Gold gnlJiereru — Muara-rupit 

 —The Dnrian— Sum langim— Thieves and thieves' calendara — ^Malay 

 dignity— Leave for Muara Mengkuiem- 



Leaving the village of Tandjong-Ning, I proceeded across a 

 gradually-rising couiitr}', at that period very poverty-stricken, 

 in which there was little new or interesting to detain me. 

 Two days brought me to Padang Ulak-Tandjong, on the river 

 Klingi, the seat of the magistrate of the district, where I was 

 detained for several days owing to the difficulty of obtaining 

 transport. All the able-bodied men had left the district in 

 search of food in far-off parts, as there had been no rice in their 

 own, from the failure of the crops for several years. Kepala- 

 Tjnrup, the nearest village to the Kaba, was ten miles farther 

 on, and eight from the base of the mountain. There I left the 

 heavy baggage^and by a rough and difficult ravine-interseeted 

 path through the forest, along which 1 noticed not a few plants 

 new to me, I proceeded to the hot springs at tiie base of the 

 Kaba, where I built a hut amid the steam which continually 

 rolled up from the water that bubbles out in the face of a steep 

 ravine at a temperature of ITO'^ F. 



I had not taken up my quarters many hours before I was 

 made sensibly aware that I was in a volcanic region by a 

 severe and long-continued shock of earthquake. Later on, on 

 the evening of the 10th of September, I again experienced two 

 very strong vertical bumps, which tossetl me clean upwards 

 from my chair, dislodged a large pet Hornbill from its perch, 

 and shook a heavy shower of drops from the trees. The jVrgus 



