669 
Northern Portion of the Malay Peninsula . 
It had been raining hard ever since we arrived in the State, 
and it continued to rain for the next three days, much to our 
disgust, as we had nothing to do but watch the waters rise 
steadily in the rice-fields, rendering it quite impossible for us 
to travel on to our destination in the interior. The country 
round being covered with highly cultivated rice-fields, 
pepper-gardens, or orchard-land, was most uninviting, and 
yielded nothing of interest, though the common birds were 
different from those found in similar situations in Perak and 
Selangor. The Governor of the State, who had been apprised 
of our intended visit from Bangkok, but who was absent at 
the time of our arrival, returned to meet us, but the floods 
were so high that his motor-car had to be wheeled along 
the road by a squad of forty coolies. When he turned up, 
however, be proved most courteous and obliging, putting 
his country-house at Chong, our destination, at our disposal, 
and assigning another very comfortable house for the use of 
our collectors. 
We eventually arrived at Chong, distant twelve or fourteen 
miles from Tap-tien, along a road which had been originally 
excellent but was now much damaged by the floods. It 
passed through very extensive padi-fields, in which much of 
the rice had been drowned out and would have to be re¬ 
planted, and through pepper plantations and orchards, but as 
the road approached Chong we arrived at more undulating 
land, largely covered with secondary jungle. There were 
precipitous limestone hills in the distance, while to the north 
and south appeared hills of more considerable elevation up 
to 3000 or 4000 feet in height, forming the main dividing- 
range of the Peninsula or spurs of that range. 
Chong itself, is a country-seat of the High Commissioner 
of the Monthon Puket and his subordinate, the Governor of 
Trang, who is his nephew. There is a large and comfortable 
plank house here which had been recently occupied by the 
Crown Prince of Siam. It was painted in broad vertical stripes 
of red and white, presenting a somewhat bizarre appearance. 
It was situated on a small hill in the centre of a large park, 
originally jungle, from which all the undergrowth had been 
removed, leaving only the larger forest trees, while the hill 
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