New mountain seen in Perak (with a note W.E. Maxwell
This note by F.A. Swettenham, with an appended observation by W.E. Maxwell, records the sighting of a previously unobserved high mountain in the Perak region on 15 April 1884 (p. 286).
Summary
Swettenham, writing from “The Hermitage” bungalow on Gunong Arang Para (elevation 3,200 feet) in the Gunong Bubu Range, describes how, after a thunderstorm cleared the atmosphere, he observed a very lofty mountain approximately sixty miles to the east-southeast (bearing 102°), estimated at 11,000–12,000 feet or more. The mountain was visible only briefly before haze obscured it again. He notes its position relative to known ranges, including Gunong Tahan and the Perak–Kinta divide, and encloses a tracing of his sketch of the visible ranges (p. 286–287).
Maxwell’s appended note (p. 288) corroborates the observation, citing a passage from Sir Hugh Low’s Journal (23 August 1883) in which surveyor Mr. McCarthy, from Gunong Hangus near the Patani frontier, also saw a mountain of very great elevation to the eastward of south, fifty or sixty miles distant — likely the same peak Deane had described as exceeding 13,000 feet in height, supposed to lie in Pahang behind the Ulu Bernam.