166 
KINA BALU: SECOND EXPEDITION. 
from a short distance above our camp, and shows the bare granite slopes and precipices ; the 
tops of the highest are just visible. To the left of the picture is the commencement of a 
spur which runs parallel to the one we are on, and on which the village of Kiau is built. 
The Kadamyan—or head waters of the Tampassuk—runs through the deep gorge between 
these two spurs. In the centre of the sketch is a deep forest-clad depression: to the right, 
in the distance, are two peculiar rocks, and above them a point just visible; the latter is the 
top of one of two high crags, a short distance apart, known as Low’s Gully. The spur 
sweeps round to the right, and in the depression at the base of the granite slope the 
Kadamyan flows past the well-known cave where Messrs. Low and St. John stopped. The 
stream flows below the steep herbage-covered rocks in the foreground, and forms a splendid 
fall a short distance below this camp. In the foreground may be seen one of the 
commonest ferns at this altitude, Polypodium dipteris (Blume). The colouring of the 
granite is various shades of grey, with a pinkish tinge on the more precipitous parts. The 
vegetation which straggles up to near the summit is of a brownish green. Our camp is 
S.W. of this part of the summit. 
The next view is of the interior looking S.E. from the camp, and is a bird’s-eye view, 
when the clouds permit, of an unexplored country. The distant mountains are, as far as I 
know, unnamed, travellers who have seen them having made guesses as to their names and 
positions. The most distant mountain in the centre of the sketch was only visible twice 
during the thirty-three days spent by me at this camp. It is apparently about 70 miles 
distant, judging by the paleness of its distant colouring, and must be of very considerable 
altitude, perhaps not much lower than Kina Balu. The steep spur on the left-hand side is 
the end of the main buttress of Kina Balu in this direction. To the right may be seen, on 
the sides of the hills far below, the clearings of the Teung Tuhan Dusuns, whose gongs we 
can occasionally hear. Being well above the clouds, we see the tops of them; the country 
below us was generally completely covered as with a billowy sea of vapour. The trees in 
the foreground, a species of pine, are hung with beard-like tufts of lichen. Looking to the 
S.W. a view of the coast is obtained, including Pulo Tega, Pulo Gaya, Mengkabong, 
and Suliman, the hazy atmosphere hiding Labuan. With my telescope I have seen a 
steamer, perhaps the dirty little 4 Spaniel.’ The trees on the top of the ridge are stunted 
and twisted, the trunks in places stretching low across the paths. The whole country is 
clothed in moss, which is like a wet sponge ; occasionally, when diving under these tree- 
trunks, one gets soaked by accidently squeezing against this saturated parasitic growth. 
Amongst the trees climb the botanical glories of Kina Balu— Nepenthes lowii and, to a less 
extent, N. villosa. N. lowii is most at home when creeping amongst the trees, where it grows 
luxuriantly; the pitchers may be counted by the dozen. The colour of the pitchers at first 
is a light green, blotched inside the lip with rusty brown; after a time they become quite 
tough and leathery-looking, and rattle when the plant is shaken. This plant has also 
another very different-looking pitcher, which at first puzzled me a good deal; growing near 
the root of the plant some of the stems bore a pitcher something like N. villosa , the lip 
being striped with lake like N. rajjlesiana (Jack); these are the radical pitchers. I 
mention this, as Mr. Burbidge, on page 99 of 4 Gardens of the Sun,’ writes— 44 All the 
pitchers hitherto seen are cauline ones, and as the plant has never yet been seen in a young 
