34 
FIVE BAYS IN NANING. 
it. It must lie in the narrow swamp across which we waded, 
because the hill of Chirkna Puteh, which sinks into it on the 
west side, is lateritic, and the sandy tract that commences 
on the east side is a continuation, and possesses the charac- 
ter, of the tract where the granite was first seen. 
Presently the scene changed. We emerged from the jun¬ 
gle and stood on the margin of a broad undulating tract of 
paddl umah, covered with the trunks and larger branches 
of trees which had been felled, and stretching, to appearance, 
nearly, up to the foot of an elongated mountain mass, 
Gunong Berdga. I was at once struck by the strong resem¬ 
blance of this portion of the Ramb&u mountains to those 
of Pinang. The summit line is irregular, being formed by 
the tops of great steep ridges which project, and are se¬ 
parated by broad and deep ravines. The form and character 
of the mass are so identical with those of the Pinang moun¬ 
tains that, having on another occasion given some detailed 
descriptions of the latter, any further remarks on this part 
of the Rambau mountains, would be a mere repetition. 
Midway across the cleared tract, and not far from some 
small huts inhabited by the paddy planters, we passed a 
long moat like depression in the ground, which, according 
to Abdulrahman, marks the boundary between Naning and 
Rambliu. The scattered inhabitants on the border of our 
territory, he said, were mostly bad characters*, and he press¬ 
ed on without holding any communication with the few 
whom we saw. The soil is a coarse quartzose clay or de 
composed granite. A large block of this rock rises above 
the surface at a little distance from the path, f After cross¬ 
ing the cleared tract, a work of some difficulty from the 
number of prostrate trees, we again entered the jungle. 
A few minutes walk brought us to the Kubur Feringi , 
or Grave of the European, a long earthen mound beside 
the path, about three feet in height, which has no 
resemblance whatever to a grave of any form, and appears 
rather to be the wasted remnant of a Malay rampart .X I 
could not learn whether the Portuguese had ever advanced 
so far into the interiour, but it is probable that they did, 
* This, for obvious reasons, must always be the case on our frontiers in the 
Peninsula. It is so in Province Wellesley. 
t It iB similar in composition to that pieviously mentioned, but larger 
grained, and containing many large oblong crystals of felspar. In decomposing, 
the felspar in many places becomes deeply stained with blackish brown and 
rusty colours, and these blotches contain much iron. 
X The original and correct name may have been Kubu Feringi—'the European 
rampart. 
