Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rare ferns on Mount Ophir
After descending into the saddle between the two peaks we found the ascent very labori-
ous, the slope being so steep as often to necessitate hand-climbing. Besides a bushy vegeta-
tion the ground was covered knee-deep with mosses on a foundation of decaying leaves and
rugged rock, and it was a hard hour's climb to the small ledge just below the summit, where
an overhanging rock forms a convenient shelter, and a little basin collects the trickling wa-
ter. Here we put down our loads, and in a few minutes more stood on the summit of Mount
Ophir, 4,000 feet above the sea. The top is a small rocky platform covered with rhododen-
drons and other shrubs. The afternoon was clear, and the view fine in its way—ranges of hill
and valley everywhere covered with interminable forest, with glistening rivers winding
among them. In a distant view a forest country is very monotonous, and no mountain I have
ever ascended in the tropics presents a panorama equal to that from Snowdon, while the
views in Switzerland are immeasurably superior. When boiling our coffee I took observa-
tions with a good boiling-point thermometer, as well as with the sympiesometer, and we
then enjoyed our evening meal and the noble prospect that lay before us. The night was
calm and very mild, and having made a bed of twigs and branches over which we laid our
blankets, we passed a very comfortable night. Our porters had followed us after a rest,
bringing only their rice to cook, and luckily we did not require the baggage they left behind
them. In the morning I caught a few butterflies and beetles, and my friend got a few land-
shells; and we then descended, bringing with us some specimens of the ferns and pitcher-
plants of Padang-batu.
The place where we had first encamped at the foot of the mountain being very gloomy,
we chose another in a kind of swamp near a stream overgrown with Zingiberaceous plants,
in which a clearing was easily made. Here our men built two little huts without sides, that
would just shelter us from the rain; and we lived in them for a week, shooting and insect-
hunting, and roaming about the forests at the foot of the mountain. This was the country of
the great Argus pheasant, and we continually heard its cry. On asking the old Malay to try
and shoot one for me, he told me that although he had been for twenty years shooting birds
in these forests he had never yet shot one, and had never even seen one except after it had
been caught. The bird is so exceedingly shy and wary, and runs along the ground in the
densest parts of the forest so quickly, that it is impossible to get near it; and its sober colours
and rich eye-like spots, which are so ornamental when seen in a museum, must harmonize
well with the dead leaves among which it dwells, and render it very inconspicuous. All the
specimens sold in Malacca are caught in snares, and my informant, though he had shot
none, had snared plenty.
