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
rather warm, and we all quenched our thirst from these natural jugs.
Farther on we came to forest again, but of a more dwarf and stunted
character than below; and alternately passing along ridges and
descending into valleys, we reached a peak separated from the true
summit of the mountain by a considerable chasm. Here our porters gave
in, and declared they could carry their loads no further; and certainly
the ascent to the highest peak was very precipitous. But on the spot
where we were there was no water, whereas it was well known that there
was a spring close to the summit, so we determined to go on without
them, and carry with us only what was absolutely necessary. We
accordingly took a blanket each, and divided our food and other articles
among us, and went on with only the old Malay and his son.
After descending into the saddle between the two peaks we found the
ascent very laborious, the slope being so steep, as often to necessitate
hand-climbing. Besides a bushy vegetation 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 water. 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
rhododendrons 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
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