Its Coast-Line, Broken Into, However, By A Bit Of British
Territory, Is About One Hundred And Twenty-Five Miles In Length.
Its
sole southern boundary is the State of Selangor.
On the north it has
the British colony of Province Wellesley, and the native States of
Kedah and Patani, tributary to Siam. Its eastern boundary is only an
approximate one, Kelantan joining it in the midst of a vast tract of
unexplored country inhabited solely by the Sakei and Semang aborigines.
The State is about eighty miles wide at its widest part, and thirty at
its narrowest, and is estimated to contain between four and five
thousand square miles. The great artery of the country is the Perak
river, a most serpentine stream. Ships drawing thirteen feet of water
can ascend it as far as Durian Sabatang, fifty miles from its mouth,
and boats can navigate it for one hundred and thirty miles farther.
This river, even one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth at Kwala
Kangsa, is two hundred yards wide, and might easily be ascended by
"stern-wheel" boats drawing a foot of water, such as those which ply on
the upper Mississippi. Next in size to the Perak is the Kinta, which
falls into the Perak, besides which there are the Bernam and Batang
Padang rivers, both navigable for vessels of light draught. Along the
shores of these streams most of the Malay kampongs are built.
The interior of Perak is almost altogether covered with magnificent
forests, out of which rise isolated limestone hills, and mountain
ranges from five thousand to eight thousand feet in height.
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