probably attach themselves to deer or other animals which frequent the forest
paths, and have thus acquired the singular habit of stretching themselves out at
the sound of a footstep or of rustling foliage. Early in the afternoon we reached
the foot of the mountain, and encamped by the side of a fine stream, whose
rocky banks were overgrown with ferns. Our oldest Malay had been accustomed
to shoot birds in this neighbourhood for the Malacca dealers, and had been to the
top of the mountain, and while we amused ourselves shooting and insect
hunting, he went with two others to clear the path for our ascent the next day.
Early next morning we started after breakfast, carrying blankets and
provisions, as we intended to sleep upon the mountain. After passing a little
tangled jungle and swampy thickets through which our men had cleared a path,
we emerged into a fine lofty forest pretty clear of undergrowth, and in which we
could walk freely. We ascended steadily up a moderate slope for several miles,
having a deep ravine on our left. We then had a level plateau or shoulder to
cross, after which the ascent was steeper and the forest denser until we came out
upon the "Padang-batu," or stone field, a place of which we had heard much, but
could never get anyone to describe intelligibly. We found it to be a steep slope of
even rock, extending along the mountain side farther than we could see. Parts of
it were quite bare, but where it was cracked and fissured there grew a most
luxuriant vegetation, among which the pitcher plants were the most remarkable.
These wonderful plants never seem to succeed well in our hot-houses, and are
there seen to little advantage. Here they grew up into half climbing shrubs, their
curious pitchers of various sizes and forms hanging abundantly from their
leaves, and continually exciting our admiration by their size and beauty. A few
coniferae of the genus Dacrydium here first appeared, and in the thickets just
above the rocky surface we walked through groves of those splendid ferns
Dipteris Horsfieldii and Matonia pectinata, which bear large spreading palmate
fronds on slender stems six or eight feet high. The Matonia is the tallest and
most elegant, and is known only from this mountain, and neither of them is yet
introduced into our hot-houses.
It was very striking to come out from the dark, cool, and shady forest in which
we had been ascending since we started, on to this hot, open rocky slope where
we seemed to have entered at one step from a lowland to an alpine vegetation.
The height, as measured by a sympiesometer, was about 2,800 feet. We had been
told we should find water at Padang-batu as we were exceedingly thirsty; but we
looked about for it in vain. At last we turned to the pitcher-plants, but the water
contained in the pitchers (about half a pint in each) was full of insects, and
otherwise uninviting. On tasting it, however, we found it very palatable though