172 
KINA BALU: SECOND EXPEDITION. 
rock-splitting agents. After travelling along tliis gradually rising slope for a distance which 
must have been close upon two miles, we reached the tooth-like rock to be seen in illustra¬ 
tion facing page 180. This point has been christened St. John’s Peak. A quotation from 
Mr. St John’s work will be interesting:—“ I was now anxious to reach one of those peaks 
which are visible from the sea ; so we descended Low’s Gully through a thicket of rhodo¬ 
dendrons, bearing a beautiful blood-coloured flower, and made our way to the westward. It 
was rough walking at first, while we continued to skirt the rocky ridge that rose to our right; 
but gradually leaving this we advanced up an incline composed entirely of immense slabs 
of granite, and reaching the top, found a noble terrace half a mile in length, whose sides 
sloped at an angle of thirty degrees on either side. The ends were the Southern Peak and 
a huge cyclopean wall. I followed the guides to the former, and after a slippery ascent 
reached the summit. I have mentioned that this peak has a rounded aspect when viewed 
from the eastward, but from the northward it appears to rise sharply to a point; and when 
with great circumspection I crawled up, I found myself on a granite point, not three feet in 
width, with but a water-worn way a few inches broad to rest on.” 
I will now continue my own observations. From this point, however, we could see 
that a huge pile of loose rocks to our right, on the opposite side of the granite slope, was 
decidedly higher; this we reached, and after climbing amongst the loose rocks sat on the 
top, where I opened my aneroid case—it read 13,525 feet. The mountain in front of us is 
w r alled off by the “huge cyclopean wall,” a perpendicular rock of perhaps 60 or 70 feet 
St. John's Teak. 
VIEW OF SUMMIT. 
y 
in height; so the estimation of the height taken by Sir Edward Belcher’s trigonometrical 
observations, 13,698 feet, may be considered as nearly correct as possible. Mr. Spencer 
St. John is the only other European who has reached the base of this wall, which bars all 
further progress, and he writes:—“ I tried to reach the summit of this peak by a narrow 
edge of rock abutting from its southern front, but after following it till it narrowed to about 
eight inches, I thought it prudent to return; but at a spot where I had secure footing I 
pitched a stone on the summit, which w T as about forty feet above the highest point I 
reached. ’ The barometer carried by these gentlemen (Mr. Low also) proved useless 
unfortunately at this point, or I might verify my own measurements. 
The only birds I have seen to-day are the Clilorocliaris and the Cettia, which were 
