PADAKG SmEMPCTAK. 



423 



Cliinese themselves. After these shallow pools have 

 been used for this puipose a year or two^ the fish 

 are taken out, the larger ones mnt to market, and 

 the smaller ones transferred to another pond* The 

 water in the first pool is then drained and its 

 bottom becomes a finitful rice-field. In this maimer 

 the natives allow their land to lie fallow, and at the 

 same time make it yield a good crop. 



March Uh — At 6 a. m.^ started from Ran for Pa- 

 dang Sidempuan, at the northern end of this valley, 

 which begins on the south at Marisipongi, where we 

 fii"Bt saw the Battas. All day our route has been in the 

 bottom of the valley, at a general elevation of one thou- 

 Band feet. Sometimes we passed over gentle undula- 

 tions, but usually over one monotonous level area 

 covered "with tall grass, in which were interspersed 

 large clumps of shi'ubbeiy. In one village there 

 were two most enormous waringiu-trees, under which 

 the villagers had prepared a rude table. On this 

 they had spread young cocoa-nuts, and bananas, ap- 

 parently the only kinds of fruit they had to ofier. 



As we advanced, the mountains on om* right 

 dwindled until they formed hills, whose tops were 

 only five or six hundred feet above the plateau in 

 which we were travelling. Before us roi^e another 

 great transvei*se ridge, in whicli towered uj) the peak 

 of Lubu Rajah to a height of over six thousand two 

 hundred feet above the sea. It is the highest mouu- 

 tain in the Batta Lauds, as the Butch call the high 

 plateaus of Silinih>ng and Toba which lie north of 

 this transverse ridge, and are beyond the limits of the 

 territory subject to the government of the Nether- 



