Exploration of Pahang: extract from a letter from Mr. W. Cameron to H.E. the Acting Governor (the Hon’ble Cecil C. Smith, C.M.G.) dated 4th September, 1885
This is an extract from a letter by William Cameron to the Acting Governor, Cecil C. Smith, dated 4 September 1885, describing a major exploration expedition into the upper reaches of Pahang and its border regions with Perak and Kelantan (p. 155).
Summary
Cameron reports that his expedition revealed Pahang to be considerably larger than previously supposed, extending up to the Ulu of the Kinta and the Raia in Perak, and shooting a further arm northward into Kelantan (p. 155). He describes a central highland “vortex” around the Telom river (the real Ulu of the Jelei) at a mean elevation of 4,500–4,750 feet, bounded by ranges he estimated at over 8,000 feet, and identifies a mountain at approximately 4° 38′ N, 10° N of E, at 6,300 feet by aneroid (pp. 155–156). His route took him up the Raia, across a pass he named Gunho Pass (5,300 feet) at the confluence of the Ulu Kinta, Penoh, and Telom, and down the Telom to within a day’s sail of its junction with the Jelei (pp. 156–157).
The expedition was physically demanding, with the party suffering from colds, fevers, and rheumatism due to heavy rains, and one man left in hospital at Penang (pp. 156–157). Cameron notes that he obtained “particularly interesting geological data” with many specimens and copious notes, and that the expedition resolved the question of the central watershed that had been the subject of various conjectures (pp. 156–157).