Journal of a collecting expedition to the mountain of Batang Padang, Perak
L. Wray, Jr., Curator of the Perak Museum, published this detailed field journal in 1890 (composed in June 1888), recording a multi-month natural history expedition to the highlands of Batang Padang, Perak, between approximately June and November 1887. The account documents the collection of botanical, ornithological, entomological, and ethnographic specimens from Gunong Batu Puteh, Gunong Brumbun, and the upper Batang Padang and Telum valleys, while simultaneously attempting to resolve questions left open by the late J. R. M. Cameron’s earlier explorations of the same region.
Summary
The expedition was organised under the auspices of the Perak colonial administration, with Wray accompanied by the museum’s collector and taxidermist Jellaah, a Kling botanical assistant named Harison, and two Malay guides, one of whom had accompanied Cameron on his own journeys. The party’s progress was repeatedly hampered by the extreme difficulty of securing Sakai porters—most were occupied burning jungle for rice cultivation—and by the relentless weather at altitude, where temperatures at the upper camp on Batu Puteh ranged between 55° and 68° F, and the only available building material was small palm leaf and rattan, producing a hut through which wind and rain drifted unimpeded (pp. 124–132). Wray himself suffered from what he termed “hill diarrhoea,” a condition he compared to those recorded at Himalayan hill stations, while his assistants contracted ague, dysentery, nettle-rash, and swollen extremities.
Beyond pure specimen collection, the journal addresses several specific scientific and administrative questions. Wray sought to confirm the identity and location of the mountain Mr. Swettenham had described in a previous JSBRAS note, to trace Cameron’s route through the Telum Valley, and to assess the mineral potential of the upper Batang Padang catchment. His geological observations distinguish the coarse-grained granite of Batu Puteh—characterised by large white feldspar crystals and dull blue quartz—from the ancient stratified series (slates and clay slates with quartz veins) that lines the Batang Padang River between Tapa and Kuala Woh, and from which he concludes all the gold in the district must have been derived (pp. 133, 151–152). The mineralogical survey of the Sungei Klian Mas and Sungei Chuchu valleys yielded tin-sand estimated at 65–70 per cent metallic tin, with gold grains bearing adherent quartz fragments, and Wray argues that auriferous lodes, if discovered, will intersect these stratified beds rather than the granites (p. 152).
The Sakai ethnographic observations are interspersed throughout the narrative rather than treated as a separate section. Wray records their agricultural practices (ladang cultivation of Chinese millet, sweet potato, sugar-cane, and cassava, with no rice), their burial customs (raised graves with offerings of fruit, flowers, and coconut shells), their trophy-hanging of animal jaws and hornbill skulls (which he compares to Dyak head-hanging), their nocturnal fire-sitting custom, and their deliberate practice of routing tracks along stream beds to prevent pursuit by Malays (pp. 125, 162–163). He also conducted eyesight tests on between thirty and forty Sakai of both sexes, finding the shortest reading distance for Army test spots to be 32 feet and the longest 91 feet, against a British Army average of 20 feet (p. 149).
Key Findings
- The expedition yielded 1,200 species of plants, 187 bird skins, approximately a dozen mammal specimens, and substantial insect and Sakai ethnographic collections; the plants were sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, and the birds to the British Museum (p. 164).
- Mr. Bowdler Sharpe identified 9 or 10 new bird species in the collection, bringing the total number of new species from the Perak mountains to 16 (p. 165).
- The summit of Gunong Batu Puteh was recorded at 6,700 feet by aneroid; Gunong Brumbun at 6,860 feet, though Wray expressed doubt about the accuracy of the latter reading given the disturbed weather (pp. 129, 159).
- Fresh tiger tracks were found on both ascents of Batu Puteh, including a track passing directly through the rock cave used as shelter, indicating regular tiger habitation of the highest Perak peaks despite the apparent absence of prey (pp. 129, 138).
- At Chendariang, the tin-sand then raised was estimated by the mine owners to yield 70 bharas of tin; the tin-sand at Sungei Klian Mas and Chuchu was assessed at 65–70 per cent metallic tin, with gold present in the wash (pp. 135, 152).
- Temperatures at the rock cave on Batu Puteh ranged from 55° to 58° F during the day, with Wray estimating that the freezing point was probably reached on clear, calm, starlight nights on the summit grass (p. 139).
Conclusion
Wray’s definitive historical takeaway is that the upper Batang Padang and Telum valleys constitute the most promising hill-planting land in the Malay Peninsula, combining elevation, exposure, soil quality, and—once the proposed railway to Tapa and cart-road up the Batang Padang valley are completed—proximity to a port, advantages he believes are unmatched in Ceylon or the Indian hill districts (p. 161). The journal thus functions as both a scientific record and an implicit argument for the economic development of the region under colonial administration.
Context
- Wray held the colonial appointment of Curator, Perak Museum, and the expedition was logistically supported by the administration (the Commissioner, Perak, Sikhs, lent waterproof sheets; specimens were directed to imperial institutions in London and Calcutta) (pp. 128, 164).
- The account was written in June 1888 but not published until 1890 in JSBRAS Vol. 21, a delay that may reflect the time required for the specimens to be worked out by their respective curators.