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 Snowdon, while the views in Switzerland are
immeasurably superior. When boiling our coffee I took
observations with a good boiling-point thermometer, as well as
with the sympiesometer, and we then enjoyed our evening meal and
the noble prospect that lay before us. The night was calm and
very mild, and having made a bed of twigs and branches over which
we laid our blankets, we passed a very comfortable night. Our
porters had followed us after a rest, bringing only their rice to
cook, and luckily we did not require the baggage they left behind
them. In the morning I caught a few butterflies and beetles, and
my friend got a few land-shells; and we then descended, bringing
with us some specimens of the ferns and pitcher-plants of Padang-
batu.
The place where we had first encamped at the foot of the mountain
being very gloomy, we chose another in a kind of swamp near a
stream overgrown with Zingiberaceous plants, in which a clearing
was easily made.
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