# Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 3/Account of a Naturalist's Visit to Selangor

​ACCOUNT OF A NATURALIST'S VISIT TO THE TERRITORY OF SELANGOR.
By Wm. T. HORNADAY.
(Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on the 7th of April, 1879.)
Wishing to obtain a glimpse of the Zoology of the Malay Peninsula, and also to collect as many specimens of Mammals as possible, I determined to make a flying visit to the terri- tory of Sélângor. Since that country has been but recently opened up to Europeans and is thinly inhabited as yet, I ex- pected to find it a good field for collecting, and so it proved. Leaving Singapore on June 2nd, 1878, twenty-six hours' steaming brought us to the mouth of the river Klang, about 200 miles from our starting point. This is the largest river in the territory, and is about 150 yards wide near the mouth.
For about 12 miles up the river the banks are low and swampy, covered to the water's edge with the usual growth of mangrove and nipa palm; and then we arrive at the town of Klang, the capital of the territory, situated on the first high ground. The fort is perched up on a hill overlooking the town, and on a higher hill a little farther back—as if to keep an eye over all—is the British Residency.
I was very kindly received by Her Majesty's Resident, Captain Douglas, and during my entire stay in Klang I was very hospitably entertained by H. C. Syers, Esquire, Superin- tendent of Police.
I soon found there were no large or specially valuable animals to be obtained in the immediate vicinity of Klang, so I engaged a boat to take me down the river and up the coast a few miles by sea to a Malay village called Jerom, which is about one mile from the mouth of the Sungei Bulu, a little river fairly swarming with crocodiles. Here I lived twelve days in the house of Datu Putch, and devoted all my energies ​to crocodiles. I shot fire with my rifle, and five more were caught for me by Malays and Chinamen by means of the well- known rattan and bark-rope, with a stick tied in the middle cross-wise at the end of the rope and sharpened at both ends. The largest crocodile I obtained (crocodilus porosus) was 12 feet in length and weighed 115 pounds. Two others were 11 feet, and another 101/2 feet in length, and of the ten specimens. I prepared 4 skeletons, 4 skins, and 1 skull.
Along this part of the coast the shore is very low, and near the shore the sea is very shallow. For many years the sea has been gradually eating away the shore-line, and under- mining the cocoanut trees which grow close along the beach, until now the beach is thickly strewn with fallen trunks. At ebb tide the water recedes from the beach and leaves bare a great mud flat, nearly a mile wide, which is so soft and miry that it is almost impossible to effect a landing from the sea at that time.
Back from the beach for an unknown number of miles extends a swampy wilderness inhabited at present only by wild beasts. Along the banks of the Sungei Bulu, I saw where the high grass had been trampled down quite recently by what must have been a large herd of wild elephants, and I was told by the natives that wild cattle were plentiful in some parts of the adjacent forest.
While at Jerom I made daily trips to the Sungei Bulu for crocodiles and whatever else I could find on the mud flats at the mouth, which were always several feet above water when the tide was out. In this vicinity I noticed a goodly number of water-birds, notably a few pelicans, two species of ibis, a small white egret, the stone plover, a booby, two terns, snipe, sandpiper, &c. I often saw troops of the common kra (macacus cynomolgus) wading about in the mud under the man- groves, looking for food, and I easily shot several specimens. We once surprised a fine kra zaya (hydrooannes salvator, found also in Ceylon) on one of the mud banks, and my boy immediately jumped out of the boat and gave chase. The mud came quite to his knees and his progress was necessarily slow, but the iguana fared even worse, and after an exciting chase of about 100 yards (time about 20 minutes!) the reptile was overhauled and killed with a stick. It was a fine large speci- men, measuring 6 feet 2 inches.
​At the month of the Sungei Bulu there is a temporary Chinese village inhabited by about forty Chinamen engaged in catching prawns on the flats and making them into blachang. The village is dirty beyond description, and smells even worse, if possible, than the market for dried fish in Singapore.
While at Jerom, a fine otter (lutra leptonyx?) was brought to me by a Malay, and a Chinese fisherman caught a a spiny-backed ray (urogymnus asperrimus), the largest specimen I ever saw of that species; the body measuring 3 feet in length. I noticed a number of old skins of the same ray lying about the village, all of which were of large size, so it seems this species must be quite common on this coast.
After spending a fortnight at Jerom very profitably I re- turned to Klang and prepared to make a trip into the interior in quest of large mammals. To my intense satisfaction, Mr. Syers obtained fourteen days' leave of absence and prepared to accompany me. Our main object was to find rhinoceros, and, if possible, kill one or two for their skins and skeletons.
We left Klang on the evening of June 26th, and proceeded up the river 18 miles by boat to Damasara, arriving there the same night. Early the next morning we set out for Kwala Lumpor, a large town 17 miles to the East of Damasara, in the centre of the tin mining district. A good carriage road is being constructed from Damasara to Kwala Lumpor, bat at that time was completed for only about 12 miles, so that the remainder of the journey, which lay through dense forest and over very uneven and hilly ground, our baggage had to be carried by coolies. Fortunately for us, Captain Douglas had very kindly arranged that our baggage should be carried by Government coolies, or we should have been entirely at the mercy of the natives, who would probably have charge us 15 to 20 cents per kati for the trip, as they often do. The road, now nearly completed, will undoubtedly be of the greatest im- portance both in developing the adjacent country and insuring the preservation of order. The Malays of the interior can no longer feel secure from the Klang Government, because of the former difficulty of conducting military operations against then, for, in my opinion, the making of good roads is the sub- jugation of Malays. The Damasara road is cut through the densest high forest I have seen in this part of the world, the trees being, as a rule, very lofty, of good diameter, and standing thickly together. The undergrowth is also very dense, com​posed mostly of huge thorny ferns, and the soil is undoubtedly rich. Usually the ground is high and hilly, so that swamps are the exception and not the rule.
We passed through a number of old clearings, some of which had been abandoned almost as soon as completed. It is evident that as an agriculturist, the Malay is not a success, nor does he seem to succeed even passably at it. It seems to me that those clearings should by all means be kept well in hand, and not allowed to grow up again into worse jungle than be- fore.
From Kwala Lumpor we went on six miles farther to the North, to a village called Batu, on the river Betu, which falls into the river Klang; which is here a mere crock. We stayed at this place seven days, and hunted through the jangle in every direction for several miles. Finding that wild elephants were plentiful, we determined to bring down one for the sake of its skeleton. The second day out, we struck a fresh trail early in the morning and followed it diligently for some hours. We had two Jakuns as trackers, and were also accompanied by two policemen. The trail led us a merry-go-round through swamps of tall grass, through comfortably open forest, through tangled and thorny jungle that would have been very nearly im- passable to us but for the broad trail left by the herd. At last, about 2. p. m., after two hours' wading through mud and water of various depths, we came up with the herd in the middle of a forest-covered swamp. We could not possibly have been led into worse ground. However, there was no help for it, so Mr. Syers and I undertook to stalk the herd, while each of our fol- lowers promptly swarmed up a tree. The herd consisted of eight or ten elephants, but there was no tusker to be seen. They were quietly browsing off the tufts of grass which grew here and there, or breaking down branches for their favourite leaves. We selected our victim, the largest male in sight, and began cautiously working our way up to him. We had to climb over several rotten tree-trunks and piles of dead branches, to go through mud and water up to our knees, and it seemed to me scarcely possible to get within proper range without be. ing discovered. But we persevered, and at last fetched up be- hind the root of a fallen tree within fifteen paces of our ele- phant, who was standing broadside on. Just as we raised our rifles, he stooped his head almost down to the ground, but we quietly waited until he raised it again, and then at the word our rifles rang out exactly together. The elephant sank down ​where he stood, then struggled to rise again, when we both fired again, and one ball took effect in his brain. He gave a tremendous shudder, settled down where he stood with his back up and his legs all doubled under him, and in a couple of minutes was quite dead.
He was a male specimen with tushes only, and not quite full grown. His back was completely encrusted with a hard cake of dry mud to protect him from the swarm of huge flies that constantly followed him. Being amply provided with knives and whetstones, we set to work on the spot to cut out the skeleton, and the following day mustered a gang of coolies who carried the bones out of the jungle to our quarters at Batu.
Elephants are plentiful throughout at Sĕlângor territory, and particularly so in the Kwala Lumpor district. They of ten do great damage to the paddy fields and gardens, and oc- casionally an old rogue pulls down a Malay house. It is my opinion that it will soon be found necessary for the Government to offer a reward for dead elephants in Sĕlângor, or they will be- come a great nuisance to the native agriculturists. It is not likely that elephants will ever be caught and trained to ser- vice in that territory, and hence the quicker they cease to be a dreaded nuisance the better.
We were at Batu in the durian season, and often visited the trees in the forest when the Malays were collecting the fruit as fast as it fell. Like the Jakuns, they build little huts high up against the trees, usually 15 or 20 feet from the ground, to get out of the way of wild beasts. But the rascally ele- phants often take the trouble to pull down even those high platforms and frighten the inhabitants half out of their wits. The herd to which we paid our respects had just the night be- fore visited several durian camps and had torn down the high- est platform of all, as if to show the Malays that it was of no use trying to build a hut out of their reach. Of course the Ma- lays fled to the jungle. There are several large caves in the vicinity, and the Jakuns are in the habit of taking refuge in them when the elephants become too neighbourly,
Wild cattle (bos sondaicus) are common in the densest iungle near Batu, aud on one occasion Mr. Syers caught a glimpse of one individual, but was unable to get a shot. often saw their spern, and spent some time in hunting for them, but did not succeed in bringing off a specimen. The inevi- table kra (macacus cynomolgus) was often seen; and squirrels were also plentiful; we obtained 4 species. Rhinoceros horn​bills (B. rhinocerous) were frequently seen, and we obtained one good specimen. The Malays and Jakuns brought us many specimens of the beautiful little mouse deer (tragulus), 2 spe- cies, and several small felidai which they had caught in traps.
After remaining a week at Batu, wherein we devoted our entire time to collecting mammals, we packed up our elephant skeleton and other specimens, and sent them down to Klang by the river, while we returned to Kwala Lumpor. We visited one of the tin mines, and the Captian China very kindly gave me a pikul of specimen tin ore of various qualities from several different mines. He also entertained us very hospitably indeed, and showed us every courtesy and kindness. We then returned to Damasara, and just as we were taking the boat to go down to Klang, we were somewhat startled at hearing the clear musical trumpet-note of an elephant in the jungle close to the police station. Elephant-hunting in Sĕlângor can never be anything else than the hardest of hard work, owing to the density of the jungles and the depth of the mud and water through which every elephant trail is sure to lend. For the same reason it is unsually dangerous also.
At the end of the six weeks I packed up a goodly collection, consisting of the skins and skeletons of mammals and crocodiles, reptiles and fishes in spirits, rocks, minerals, &c., and took my departure for Singapore, highly gratified with what I had seen and accomplished, and with the kind and hospitable treatment I had received from all the European Officers of the Government.
It is beyond the scope of these notes to attempt giving even an outline of the general Natural History of Sĕlângor and I shall confine myself to that branch to which I paid particular attention, viz., Mammals. Since my visit to that country, my friend Mr. Syers has collected and sent me a goodly number of mammals, of which several species are new in my Sĕlângor collection. I present herewith a list of such species as I have now in that collection, and I also include certain others of which I have seen either skins or live ani- mals in Selangor. To my certain knowledge the species enu- merated below are found, having been either "collected" or "observed." Of course there are many other mammals which could have been met with in a longer stay, and will, in due time, be added by other observers to the following list.
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