Page:Jstraitsrsa31-33.pdf/229

 Besi, there are a few Malay houses at long intervals, but above that there are none whatever, the whole of it being Sakei country. There is evidence however of ancient native settlement on a large scale, as there are groves of Durian and other fruit trees, now grown to the size of the other jungle trees, where doubtless the villages originally stood. None of the Malays of the present day seem to have any idea as to who were the ancient inhabitants, or what was the cause of the exodus. It is also a noticeable fact that above Kuala Besi the names of rivers, mountains, etc., are all Sakei. The land on each side of the Seran is of much better quality than the general run of land in Pahang, and tha paucity of settlements on it is remarkable.

About 8 hours poling above Kuala Besi, and toiling along slowly in a boat, against a rather rapid current, a huge masa of what I at first took to be smoke or fog loomed up among the trees on the right bank. To my surprise on getting closer. I I found it to be a huge isolated Tor of limestone, fully 400 feet high, the face of the cliff being quite perpendicular and snowy white. I then remembered that on one occasion, looking from the top of a high hill near the Silensing mine with a strong pair of glasses, we had made out a huge white mass in that direction, and many were our conjectures as to what it could be. Here was the mystery solved! About 50 feet up from the face of the cliff, I found a cave open to the front, capable of holding two to three hundred people, which is used as a camping ground by the Sakeis when out hunting, the limestone being blackened by the camp-fires of ages.

The sight of this vast natural monument, so different to the ordinary monotony of the Pabang jungle, was so absorbing, that it was long ere I could leave it. There is a similar cliff at the upstream end of the Tor, so that the view whether going up or down stream, is equally grand, and deep were my regrets that I had left my camera at home, and so could not get some photographs of it. The native name of this cliff is Gua Bumit.

About two hours' poling above that, a small stream, called Sungei Chok, comes in on the right bank, and there navigation ceases, or at least ought to, for to take a boat farther up,