After our morning walk we looked over the saw-mills,
and then returned with the manager to breakfast. We
afterwards visited Mr. Hole at the Istana, and found that
he had already obtained guides and boatmen, so that we
at once had our baggage transferred to the boats, and
prepared to start on our journey. Some delay arose,
however, owing to the man having to purchase stores,
and so it was after four o’clock before we hade Mr. Hole
adieu on the steps of the Istana jetty and got fairly off.
All our heavy baggage was stowed in a native boat,
manned by four Malays, while we ourselves and our
stores occupied a Chinese sampan. Our craft was
pulled, or rather pushed, by its owner, a stalwart
celestial; and as he had never been up the Scudai river
before, we had an old Malay sitting on the prow to
act as pilot, the stream being very narrow in places,
with numerous snags and shoals. Notwithstanding this
precaution, however, we were aground twice, and the
boat heeled over in the current rather uncomfortably.
“ Johnnie ” had to plunge out into the mud of this alligator’s
paradise to push our craft into deep water again.
These were trifling discomforts, however, not worth a
thought amid much that was novel and interesting. We
ate our dinners in the boat just at dusk, and enjoyed the
cool breeze which swept over the water as we glided up
stream.
The silence of the night was unbroken, save by the
regular dip of the oars; and as darkness increased, the
tiny lamps of the fire-flies became visible here and there
among the vegetation on the hanks. As we glided onwards
their numbers increased, until we came upon
them in thousands, evidently attracted by some particular
kind of low tree, around which they flashed simultaneously,
their scintillating brilliancy being far beyond
ch. n r.] River Travel. 35
what I could have imagined to he possible. During my
whole sojourn in the East I never saw them again in
anything like such numbers. The moon arose about
eight o’clock, revealing more distinctly the gradual narrowing
of the river, the vegetation of which appeared
to he very luxuriant, towering far above our heads. We
could recognise the tufted leaves and tall stems of a
slender-growing pandan, standing out clear and dark
against the sky, and here and there the tall dead trunk
of a giant tree added to the weird beauty of a scene, in
which the lack of accurate knowledge left much to the
imagination.
Our solitary Chinese boatman dipped his oars with the
same easy swing as at starting; and about nine o’clock
he finished a stiff pull of nine or ten miles by running
our boat into the little creek at Kanka Kaladi, he having
kept ahead of the Malays, who paddled the other boat,
all the way. On our arrival, all the Chinese who live
here were abed; so we hauled our craft up to a boathouse
at the head of the creek, and got all our things
into the loft overhead, and having spread our rugs, and
lighted our lamp, we turned in for the night. Before we
fell asleep some of the people, who had been disturbed
by our arrival, came to have a look at us, and did their
best to keep us awake by talking most of the night.
We awoke the next morning just® before sunrise, and
soon prepared our breakfast of soup and biscuit. We
had a stroll around the village, which was entirely occupied
by Chinese settlers. The houses were of wood,
thatched with palm-leaves, and most of them were surrounded
with fruit-trees and cocoa-nut palms. We tried
to hire coolies, to carry some of our luggage on to the
next village, Kanka Ah Tong, where we were to rest for
the night, starting for the summit to-morrow. Unfor-
D 2