Viewing page 119 of 185

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-94-

Siamangs were booming in the forest across the road from the gibbons, and we walked part way up the road to see if we could get a glimpse of them.  They, too, came close to get a look at us.  Although they were in the tops of trees, they were on the lower side of the mountain, and the tree tops were beneath where we stood.  We could see several of the big black fellows very plainly, and they swung from branch to branch, and made the mountains ring with their terrific voices.  

Later we saw a big troop of Entellus monkeys in the same locality.  A big wild boar dashed across the road and vanished in to the forest. We saw several birds that we had not seen before, including two kinds of drongoes and a remarkable long-tailed jay. Much of the vegetation was new to us - lovely little wayside flowers, - and of course thick jungle on both sides of the road all day long.  In fact it was too thick and there were few places where we could get into it at all to collect.  

The pass, where the road begins to lead down again, is very high (Mr. DeJong says 10,000 feet but I don't think it is that much). Takengon, which is 4,000 is so far below that the country around it seems to be a low plain. From the pass one gets a magnificent view looking out over range after range of mountains.  

We had lunch near a little stream. Although it was mid-day the air was crisp and cool. It is grand to collect in the tropics if one gets high enough, and to find rare tropical fauna without shedding a drop of perspiration. 

On our return we went down to have a close look at the lake, and particularly at the swimming club, which I had thought of patronising. However, the shores of the lake are rather marshy; the water was full of algae; and with all the native bathing going on so close to the lake the water was really not very inviting.  

Nasi goreng for dinner - an excellent one. We took a short walk after dinner. The Moon was full and the night was luminous. The air was like [[strikethrough]] an [[/strikethrough]] that of an autumn evening at home - crisp and almost cold. Two blankets were welcome when we went to bed, and we slept like logs for about ten hours. 

June 23 -

We left Takengon in the morning, and spent all the forenoon driving slowly down the mountain, stopping to collect wherever the country looked inviting. We had lunch by the side of the road, and Bill found some more big horned flies, and I found a species of Ponerine raiding a Pheidole nest. About two o'clock when we had covered not more than forty kms. rain began, and it poured all the rest of the way. We stopped at Blang Rakal, making another effort to meet the old Datoek, but today he was in Bireuen. We had hoped that when we got to the lowlands the weather would be clear, but the storm continued until we reached Lho Semawe, about five o'clock. 

We stayed this time at another little hotel, the Pension Emma, and ordered a reistafel. Acorss the road was a big grassy marsh, and the buffalo were coming slowly home, silhouetted against