Account of a trip up the Pahang, Tembeling, and Tahan rivers, and an attempt to reach Gunong Tahan
H.J. Kelsall and H.N. Ridley published this account in 1894, documenting a two-month expedition up the Pahang, Tembeling, and Tahan rivers in the Malay Peninsula, culminating in a failed attempt to reach the summit of Gunong Tahan. The article serves as both a travel narrative and a natural history survey, combining detailed observations of fauna, flora, and indigenous peoples with a frank assessment of the logistical challenges that defeated the expedition’s primary objective.
Summary
The expedition departed Pekan in late June 1894, initially in a large native-built boat provided by Hugh Clifford, poling upstream through the broad, sandbank-strewn Pahang River. The party progressively transferred to smaller craft as the river narrowed, reaching Kuala Tembeling on 12 July and then pushing up the Tahan River to establish a base camp at Kuala Tahan. From there, Ridley led a path-cutting party inland along the Tahan valley, establishing a series of camps (numbered through to the ninth) as they attempted to approach the mountain range. The advance was hampered by the extreme difficulty of jungle transport, the low state of the river which made boat progress agonizingly slow, the illness of key members including Kelsall (who contracted fever) and Ridley’s best plant collector, and the unreliability of the Kelantan coolies who suffered from beri-beri, dysentery, and other ailments. By early August, with food supplies exhausted and no prospect of resupply for several days, the party was forced to retreat.
The article’s second half, written by Ridley, shifts to a botanical survey of Pahang’s vegetation, drawing on collections from this expedition and earlier visits in 1889 and 1890. He describes the distinctive sandy heath country near Pekan, the rich limestone flora of Kota Glanggi, and the dense dipterocarp forests of the Tahan valley, noting numerous novelties to science including a new Dipterocarpus pulcherrimus, several new Didymocarpus species, and the first recorded Brugmansia (Rafflesiaceae) from the Malay Peninsula. Ridley also documents the economic botany of the region—gutta, dammar, gaharu, and rattans—and the limited cultivation practices of the Pahang Malays.
Throughout the narrative, the authors record encounters with Sakai (Orang Asli) evidence—rough shelters, tree platforms, and fire remains—without ever sighting the people themselves, and note the mountain’s true height as considerably less than the popular estimate of 14,000 feet, judging it at 8,000 to 10,000 feet from direct observation.
Key Findings
- The expedition was allotted two months by the Government and carried food for that period, but the low river state and jungle transport difficulties consumed the time without reaching the mountain (p. 48).
- Over 2,000 herbarium specimens were collected despite two of three plant collectors being incapacitated by fever and injury for most of the Tahan valley phase (p. 49).
- The Tahan River was navigable by boat only to the mouth of Sungei Tenok, approximately three miles above Kuala Tahan, beyond which the stream was choked with boulders and required two days of clearing for a distance of three miles (p. 41).
- The path-cutting party established nine camps over the Tahan valley; the final camp (No. 9) was reached on 4 August, and a Sakai track was followed before the party ascended a ridge that barred further progress (pp. 46–47).
- A single pool dynamited at Kuala Tahan yielded 35 large fish, illustrating the reliance on this method for protein in the upper valley (p. 40).
- The estimated height of Gunong Tahan was revised downward from the commonly cited 14,000 feet to 8,000–10,000 feet based on direct visual observation from a hill on the left bank of the Tahan (p. 46).
Conclusion
Kelsall and Ridley concluded that the failure to reach Gunong Tahan was attributable to a convergence of factors—low water levels, inadequate coolies, and the far greater difficulty of the Tahan jungle than anticipated—and suggested that a route via the Tembeling River to its source would have been more practicable. The expedition nonetheless yielded a substantial botanical collection and the first reliable topographical observations of the Tahan range, establishing a baseline for future attempts.
Context
- The authors were serving in colonial scientific and administrative roles: Ridley was the Government Botanist for the Straits Settlements and Malay States, and Kelsall was a naturalist attached to the same office; the expedition was funded and sanctioned by the colonial Government.
- The article draws on field notes, compass sketches, and specimen collections made during the trip, and represents one of the earliest systematic natural history surveys of the upper Pahang and Tahan river systems.