bungalow or rest-house, built for the convenience of
travellers by the Government. The native police were
very attentive, and we took our luncheon here and
strolled around the station, and saw abundant evidence
of the wild pigs, which are said to be very plentiful.
While we waited, the Maharajah drove up in a neat
little carriage drawn by a pair of ponies. This was just
before his visit to England, and we obtained a good view
of him. He is a fine manly fellow, with a bushy moustache,
and was dressed in white trousers and jacket, with
a white sun-hat, and wore a coloured “ sarong ” around
his waist. We informed him of our intended visit to
the mountain, and he promised us that Mr. Hole, his
secretary, should furnish us with guides and boatmen.
We had arranged with a Chinese sampan man to ferry
ourselves and baggage over, but just as we were about
starting one of the little steam ferry-boats came over, and
leaving “ Johnnie ” to bring on our things and a Chinese
“ boy ” in charge, we crossed in the steamboat. We
took up our quarters with Mr. Boultbee, with whom we
were to stay the night. Jahore itself we found to be a
straggling place built along the margin of the strait, and
consisting of the Istana and a mosque, together with a
few whitewashed houses roofed with red tiles, and native
palm-thatched cottages. The best of the tiled houses
are occupied by Chinese shopkeepers, the principal
wares being rice, fruit, fish, coopery, boxes, baskets, and
miscellaneous stores. The principal industry of the place
is the timber trade. Extensive steam saw-mills, fitted
with good machinery, are here worked by the Maharajah,
a good many natives being employed in the trade, while
the timber finds a market in Singapore, where a depot
exists for business purposes. A railway was projected
to the forest near Gunong Puloi some years ago, and
several miles of wooden tramways were actually laid
down, but the work is now suspended. Were such a
roadway completed, it would do much to open up a
fertile country especially rich in fine timber, rattans, and
other jungle produce. The culture of gambier (Uncaria
Gambir, Roxb.), pepper and other products now cultivated
by the Chinese settlers would also be facilitated. As it
is, the timber is cut as near to the streams as is possible,
and is then dragged by buffaloes through the jungle and
floated down to the town, several logs being lashed
together so as to form rafts, on which a man stands to
steer it clear of snags and other obstacles.
Gambling is one of the curses of this place, and is
publicly carried on in some large buildings near the sawmills.
As the Maharajah derives a percentage from the
tables, gambling is not likely to be suppressed here, as it
has been at Singapore. Mr. Boultbee’s house, where we
stayed, is a large and comfortable one of wood, and it
stands on an eminence at the north-east end of the
town. From the verandah a beautiful view of the old
strait is obtained, reminding one of Windermere, only
that the vegetation is more luxuriant, brightened as it is
by a tropic sun. We walked in the garden and forest
behind at sunrise, when every flower and leaf was bathed
in dew, and were much pleased with the vegetation.
The elk’s-horn fern (Platycerium biforme) grew on the
stems of several of the trees, and we saw it high up in
the branches of the forest trees behind the house. Nepenthes
ampullaria, and the noblest of all ferns, Dipteris
Horsfieldii, were also abundant in the jungle quite close
to the sea-beach, and tall gleichenias clambered up the
bushes to a height of at least twenty feet.
Birds and butterflies were alike plentiful in the jungle,
and some of the latter were very gorgeous in colour.
D