172 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
side of the watershed, offers a totally different aspect, 
and is thus described by the same writer:—-"The 
appearance of Mandeling is as varied and luxuriant as 
that of Pertibi is monotonous and arid. To the south 
are high and naked mountains, over which the lalang 
grass again spreads its monotonous mantle. Here hamlets 
and cultivated tracts appear, stuck on frightful steeps, 
where unfruitfulness and poverty have established their 
hungry seat. The northern Ankola valley also presents 
some dry and desert places like those of Padang-luwas. 
But for the rest, the district consists of one chain of 
beautiful valleys hemming the banks of the Batang-gadis 
(Virgin Eiver), which runs between the central mountains 
of Sumatra. These valleys, like the river itself, become 
wider and wider as we proceed to the north and west. 
The high chains of mountains are covered to their sum¬ 
mits with stately forests, which afford abundance of good 
timber and other valuable products. On the lower 
mountains, too, are woods here and there, and these are 
commonly adorned with the wine-yielding Areng palm 
(Saguerus sacchariferus). Here we see well-watered rice- 
fields, which, in small valleys like amphitheatres, climb 
up a considerable portion of the acclivities, and, in the 
distance, extend to an invisible boundary. Nowhere does 
the landscape weary. The eye rests constantly on orna¬ 
mental groups of bamboos and various trees, or on the 
small clumps of fruit-trees in which the villages lie con¬ 
cealed, their position being especially marked by the 
abundance of coco and areca palms. Towards evening 
we observe near the villages numerous herds of buffaloes, 
oxen, and goats; while men, well fed and well clothed, 
and, what is more, a superabundance of children, prove 
that in this favoured region the greatest prosperity has 
reigned for some years.” 
