THREE MONTHS IN PAHANG 
wtjll thilt it is iigaitist tlie law, and must know that they are 
iniiiiing a great risk hnnting so near to the headquarters of 
tlie District, especially when it is in charge of so zealous an 
officer as Mr. P. W cW, I think the answer is easy to find. At 
the bottom of the whole thing there must be a Chinaman. 
The Sakats would not go to the trouble or take the risk of 
hunting rhinoceros fur the sake of the meat so close to the 
headquarters of the District, especially the Sakais from Bukit 
Si Gumpal who are more or less civilised. They undoubtedly 
hunt rhinoceros for the horn and the horn only as the main 
object. Chinese will give very heavy prices U)r rhmoceros 
horns, and in the old days when Malays used to hunt big 
game, they preferred to go after rhinoceros to elephant because 
the horn was much more valuable in weight than ivory, 
and generally speaking the lieast was more easily killed. I 
have no doubt in my mind but that the Sakais of Bukit Si 
Gumpal, of whom Batin Rajah is the head, were being pro- 
visioned by some local Chinese shopkeeper with the express 
object of obtaining for hiiTi the horns of rhinoceroses and 
possibly seladang. The difficulty of checking a business of 
this sort is very great, but if the big game is to be protected, 
vigorous steps should be taken. I will refer to this in my con- 
chiding chapter. I lelt Kuala Semantan on the 30th of 
August, put in a night at Gnai at Imam Prang Snmab's 
kampong and was soon on my way up the Triang at route for 
Pertang. But there was still one more hunting incidf^nt 
before my journey finished, a short account of which will no^ 
1 think, be out of place. About g o'clock on the morning of 
the 2nd (»f September we arrived at a spot on the Triang 
called Pasir Pulas, which was the landing place for a track to 
a salt lick aljout three miles inland called *' Sesap Kepong." 
I took six days' provisions with the party and left old 
Mat Linggi in charge of the boat. Shortly after leaving 
the river we crossed the trace of a road which was running 
practically parallel with the Triang River. I had been 
informed that it was proposed to construct a road to connect 
Bentong with the Pahang Railway. This trace apparently 
followed the Triang from the proposed railway station at 
Buntar until it nearly reached Plnngai and then cut up 
towards the Negri Sembilan boundary, joining the Pahantr 
Main Road (Kuala Pilah to Bentong! near the old road 
construction boundary. The trace had been very nicely 
cleared and was no doubt an excellent one to walk along, 
but even to reach the 42nd mile from Bentong (approximately 
the boundar)') it should never have been so close to the 
river as it was at Pasir Pulas. The country all about 
