500 TOUR FROM SOURABAYA, THROUGH KEDIRI, &CJ 
Before 12 o’clock we were again on horseback, having a 
long uphill journey to perform to Antang. Passing up through 
the mountain gap between the Kawi and Klut, close behind 
the village of Welingi, we crossed to the northern bank of the 
Kali Lesso, formerly mentioned, and then followed up its 
course towards the mountains. We soon got into forest and 
jungle, with here and there a few Coffee trees, keeping con¬ 
stantly rising. At a distance of about 6 pauls we came to a 
small hamlet called Wonosari, and here crossing again the 
LSsso, after half a pant’s ride up to the opposite side, reached 
the village of Semen, situated in a patch of Sawahs and al¬ 
ready amongst the hills, which now rise higher and more 
precipitous as you proceed. At Semen we changed horses 
and immediately continued our route, having in the next hour 
and a quarter to perform the most rugged part of our jour¬ 
ney; we were however, well mounted on strong active ponies, 
which scrambled famously up and down the steep declivities. 
Luckily, the weather had latterly been fine, and the ground 
was just moist enough to afford a firm footing ; in wet slip¬ 
pery weather, some parts would be almost impassable, as the 
way, at the best, is only a rough path through the forest A 
great many of the Areu Palm trees grow here spontaneously, 
and in snug secluded valleys we saw and passed several small 
establishments, built for collecting and boiling down the toddy 
to jaggery sugar. Large bambus are also in abundance and 
are very useful in carrying on operations, serving as lad¬ 
ders to mount the trees, buckets to catch and transport 
the toddy, as materials for the construction of the huts, 
which are even roofed with bambus, split up like tiles, in¬ 
stead of thatch, and called by the Javanese klakke. Af¬ 
ter journeying about 10 pauls from Welingi, we arrived at 
the small secluded mountain village of Kirisie, near to which 
is a tall conspicuous and precipitous cliff standing up at the 
end of one of the numerous spurs of the Klut, Immediately 
beyond the village, is the boundary with Malang, where we 
fell in with a regularly constructed bridle road, 10 or 12 feet 
wide, which constantly improved the nearer we approached 
Antang, now distant exactly 11 pauls, as indicated by posts 
set up at regular intervals. Our way was still upwards for 
three pauls but not so steep as before Here we found the 
dwarf Palm, Areca bumilis, very abundant, in places constitu¬ 
ting almost the only vegetation of the forest- The Javanese call 
it Piji and it is the same as the Bingbing of the Sundanese, 
Bambus still continue large and plentiful. The summit of the 
gap being reached, we again began to descend and at 7 pauls 
