inches in girt, and with a thick stumpy tail.  The natives say its bite is venomous.  Our course today has been north along the banks of the Ipu river; the noise of the rapids so great that when near it we can with difficulty hear each other speak. 20th.  Continued along the river, crossing it several times.  Came to a hot spring in the water of which the thermometer rose to 100 degrees at a considerable distance from its source.  The road today tolerably level and good.

LEECHES.

We were much plagued by a small kind of leech, which dropped on us from the leaves of the trees, and got withinside our clothes.  We were in consequence on our halting every day obliged to strip and bathe ourselves in order to detach them from our bodies, filled with the blood they had sucked from us.  They were not above an inch in length, and before they fixed themselves as thin as a needle, so that they could penetrate our dress in any part.  We encamped this evening at the conflux of the Simpang stream and Ipu river.  Our huts were generally thatched with the puar or wild cardamum leaf, which grows in great abundance on the banks of the rivers in this part of the country.  It bears a pleasant acid fruit, growing much in the same way as the maize.  In long journeys through the woods, when other provisions fail, the natives live principally on this.  The leaf is something like that of the plantain, but not nearly so large. 21st.  Arrived at a spot called Dingau-benar, from whence we were obliged to return on account of the coolies not being able to descend a hill which was at least a hundred and fifty yards high, and nearly perpendicular.  In effecting it we were obliged to cling to the trees and roots, without which assistance it would have been impracticable.  It was nearly evening before one half of the detachment had reached the bottom, and it rained so excessively hard that we were obliged to remain divided for the night; the rear party on the top of the steep hill, and the advanced on the brow of another hill.  One of the guides and a Malay coolie were drowned in attempting to find a ford across the Ipu river.  I was a long time before we could get any fire, everything being completely soaked through, and the greater part of the poor fellows had not time to build huts for themselves.  Military disposition for guarding baggage, preventing surprise, etc. 22nd.  We had much difficulty in getting the mortar and its bed down, being obliged to make use of long thick rattans tied to them and successively to several trees.  It was really admirable to observe the patience of the sepoys and Bengal convicts on this occasion.  On mustering the coolies, found that nearly one half had run during the night, which obliged us to fling away twenty bags of rice, besides salt and other articles.  Our course lay north, crossing the river several times.  My poor faithful dog Gruff was carried away by the violence of the stream and lost.  We were obliged to make bridges by cutting down tall trees, laying them across the stream, and interlacing them with rattans.