Notes on a trip to Gunong Benom in Pahang
W.D. Barnes, a Government surveyor, published in 1903 a detailed account of his August 1900 expedition to Gunong Benom in Ulu Pahang to erect a trigonometrical beacon, accompanied by a botanical catalogue compiled by H.N. Ridley, Director of the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The narrative documents both the practical difficulties of colonial-era field surveying in the Malay Peninsula and the natural history of a granite massif at approximately 5,000 feet elevation.
Summary
Barnes undertook the work after an experienced mandore, Che Musa, had failed to secure porters for the return journey to the mountain. Assembling a party of 42 men—including a pawang (shaman) engaged to ward off the “peculiarly vicious hantu” said to infest the peak—Barnes departed Raub on 31 August 1900. The expedition was beset by logistical problems: the iron beacon required 22 men to carry, food supplies ran critically short, and the coolies struck work on 16 August. Barnes discovered that Che Musa’s clearing was on a subordinate peak of only about 5,000 feet rather than the trigonometrically determined 6,800-foot summit, separated from the true Gunong Benom by at least five deep valleys. He elected to erect the beacon on the subordinate peak anyway, as it commanded views of numerous main-range stations and the Gali and Dong valleys (pp. 1–5).
The account is notable for its ethnographic observations. Barnes records the pawang’s midnight harangue to the mountain spirits, Malay ghost stories about Bukit Hitam and giant beroh monkeys, a Chinese thauke’s sceptical burning of a dato tree, and a folk cure for kurap (ringworm) involving sulphur and kerosene oil applied under strict seclusion (pp. 5–7). Geologically, Barnes identifies the Benom massif as an isolated granite intrusion with no visible igneous connection to the main range, and notes the contrast between the sedimentary rocks on the eastern side of the range and the igneous character of the western side (pp. 9–10).
Ridley’s appended catalogue lists approximately 80 plant species collected at the summit, including several new to science: Linociera lancifolia, Diplycosia lancifolia, Dendrochilum angustifolium, and Loranthus tetragonus (new to the Peninsula). Notable records include Pachynocarpus Stapfianus (previously known only from a single Scortechini specimen in fruit), Gordonia imbricata (a rare Perak plant), and Pholidota gibbosa (a Javanese species not previously recorded for the Peninsula) (pp. 10–18).
Key Findings
- The beacon was erected on a subordinate peak of approximately 5,000 feet, not the true 6,800-foot summit of Gunong Benom, which was separated by at least five deep valleys (p. 3).
- Rhinoceros dung and a beast-track were found over the ridge, and an elephant was observed on the summit at night, turned back by fallen trees—raising questions about why such heavy animals traverse steep ridgelines (p. 7).
- The Benom massif is an isolated granite intrusion with no visible igneous connection to the main range; sedimentary rocks on the eastern side of the range persist to much higher elevations than on the western side (pp. 9–10).
- The conglomerate at Jeram Kapur below Bentong contains pebbles of quartzite and silicified slate (not igneous rocks), with a strike a few points west of north and east of south and a very steep dip (p. 9).
- Ridley’s botanical collection included Pachynocarpus Stapfianus with flowers (previously known only in fruit from Scortechini’s single specimen), Wikstroemia candolleana (the “chandan” of Pahang), and two Nepenthes species (sanguinea and gracilis) at this elevation (pp. 12, 16).
- The pawang Wan Putih proved useless in practical terms but provided ethnographic material, including a midnight confrontation with the “hantu” of the mountain and a snake-bite treatment for a coolie (pp. 5–6).
Conclusion
Barnes’ definitive historical takeaway is that the expedition, while failing to reach the true summit, yielded a trigonometrically useful station, a substantial botanical collection of scientific value, and valuable geological observations on the relationship between the granite Benom massif and the surrounding sedimentary geology of the Pahang highlands. He explicitly advises that any future attempt to station the true summit should use a different route—via the Dong or the Krau—rather than the Raub approach, where labour is expensive and local topographical knowledge among natives is nonexistent (p. 10).
Context
- The expedition was part of the F.M.S. Trigonometrical Survey under Mr. Young, representing the colonial infrastructure of scientific surveying across the Straits Settlements and protected states in the early 1900s.
- The botanical specimens were deposited at the Singapore Botanical Gardens under H.N. Ridley, whose catalogue raisonne forms the second half of the publication and contributes several new species descriptions to the Malayan flora.