64 
THREE MONTHS IN PAHANG 
through Kubang Ebit, then followed up the Pertang Kanan 
and crossed the Kuala Semantan-Manchis bridle path, 
stiil i^oiiig \vf:st he crossed over into the Semantan watershed 
utilising a pass between the valleys of the Triang and 
the Semantan which was so low that we scarcelv reaUsed 
that we were rising to it until we were in the paFs. He 
then followed down one of the tribntanes of the Telemong 
and wandered about there for about a day. Here we 
found extensive old gold workings, the jungle was literally, 
honeycombed with pits. This part of the country did not 
seem to jtlease the elephant so he turned back, crossed 
the watershed by the same path that he had previously 
followed and then practically retraced his steps towards 
Sesap Kepong. The day he returned we got fairh' close 
to him, finding in the morning that during the night he 
had crossed the tracks that we had passed as late as three 
o'clock the previous afternoon. We did a forced march 
that day expecting to get up to him only to be disappointed. 
The spurt was too much however for one of niy coolies 
who failed to make camp and slept the night up a tree. 
As he had all my spare clothes and some of my food I 
WRS not very well pleased with him- He also delayed 
us till nine o'clock the following morning. W'hen we found 
on the fifth day that we were within about a day's march 
of the salt tick, and \\e only had at the outside two days 
more provisions I realised that we cotild only go on after 
this elephant provided he continued to take us in a homeward 
direction. This he did not seem inclined to do after he 
had crossed the Pertang once more, so we made straight 
for Sesap Kepong on the chance that he had g(jne there 
by another route. He had not however and I saw his 
huge tracks no more. During the six days that we had 
followed him he had eaten ver>' little, had only lain do%vn 
three times, and had in fact behaved in quite a different 
fashion to any other elephant that I have ever followed. 
He may Iiave been wounded at some previous time and 
his wound may have been worrying him, but he was not 
incapacitated at all as far as his walking powers were 
concerned. That he is an old elephant I am convinced 
from the shape of his track, the impririt of his toe nails 
standing out quite clearly from the line of the foot itself, 
in fact one might well compare bis track with that of 
a tigers track although of course with no reference to size. 
We arrived at Sesap Kepong fairly early in the morning 
and found that during our absence a herd of elephants, a herd 
of seladang, and two rhinoceroses had visited the hck. The 
