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24 instead of 500. We had lunch at the Shoaffs' very lovely house. It was dark and cool, with high ceilings, red tile floors, and carved teak furniture. For lunch we had bami again, but this time a very elegant dish compared to the bami we had at Tebing Tinggi, and for dessert our Singapore dish, gula malacca. I rested in the afternoon, while Bill visited with various men on the scientific staff. At seven o'clock we went to Mr. Ingle's house (he is general manager, Shoaff is second in command) for pahits and kechil-makan (cocktails and hors d'oeuvres). Back to the Shoaffs for dinner, and home about eleven o'clock. We got a telephone message today that the Governor will give us permits, but must have a list first of the animals we expect to get. March 7 Up early, and over to the dam that belongs to the ice company. It was being emptied and cleaned, and we took Gaddi over, with a net and a bucket of formalin, to see if he could catch any fish as the water was lowered. Then I spent the morning at the typewriter, writing letters for Bill, and getting caught up in my own diary. It rained all afternoon, and we dozed, had dinner and went to bed. March 8 - Prapat We had intended to start early for Lake Toba, but we heard that there was mail coming up for us from Medan, so we waited for that. As it did not arrive by noon, we left anyway after tiffin, and told the hotel to send it up to us the next day. Bill and I took a small car, leaving Williams to follow us to-morrow. We rode through the outskirts of town, then through a rubber plantation, an oil-palm plantation, and quite a strip of real jungle before we got to the mountains. The highest pass was 1750 meters - nearly 6000 feet - and then we wound down again until we saw the smooth blue water of Lake Toba below us. Lake Toba fills the crater of an extinct volcano, and is 52 miles long. There is an island, Samosir, 28 miles long, in the Lake. The hills, mostly deforested, rise abruptly from the edge of the lake. Little groups of trees here and there over the mountain side, show where a batak kampong is situated. Except for Prapat, which is built on a peninsula, there is little sign of habitation, and the whole effect is very wild and beautiful. The Coenraads have a house here, and are building another, and we walked down to see them in the afternoon, and stayed for tea on their porch, which is built right on the water's edge. They have planted quantities of lotus at their very doorstep. Looking past the tall pink blossoms, we could see a lopsided little fisherman's house built out in the lake on tall stilts, and from time to time a batak sampan with high curved [[strikethrough]] stem an [[/strikethrough]] bow and stern, was paddled lazily past. An occasional fisherman visited his nets, sitting or even standing, in one of the fragile
Transcription Notes:
There - 2nd to last paragraph - h is there but mistyped. Have included it as just seems a mistype. -@siobhanleachman
