392 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



edge of tlie plateau at the village of Padang Panjang, 

 We were tlien more than two thousand four hun- 

 dred feet above the plain, having ascended about 

 two thousand feet in four milea Here the inspec- 

 tor left word for me to wait a couple of days for 

 him, as he was still away to the south. Hea\'y show- 

 ers continued the next day, so that I had little op- 

 portunity of travelling far ; besides, it was very cool 

 after coming up from the low, hot land by the shore. 

 Tliere is almost always a curreut of air either up or 

 down this cleft, and the warm air of the coast region 

 is brought into contact with the cool air of the plar 

 teau, and condensation and precipitation seems to 

 occur here more abundantly than at any other place 

 in the vicinity, the number of rainy days numbering 

 two hundred and five. Tliis is no doubt due to the 

 local causes already explained. The average tem- 

 perature here is 49.28^ Fahrenheit. In the cleft, at 

 one or two places, are a few houses made by the peo- 

 ple who have moved down from the plateau. Th^ 

 are placed on posts two or three feet above the gi-ound. 

 Their walls are low, only thi^ee or four feet high, and 

 made of a rude kind of panel-work, and painted red. 

 Large open places are left for windows, which allow 

 any one passing to look in. There are no partitions 

 and no chairs nor benches, and the natives squat do mi 

 on the rough floor. It requires no careful scrutiny of 

 these hovels to see that they are vastly more filthy 

 than the bamboo huts of the Malays who live on the 

 low land. 



In all thQ villages I have passed to-day, both on 

 the low land and here on the plateau, there is a 



