Botanical Notices from Java. 465 



fectly held together by a little earth and moss ; not unfrequently they 

 rolled away from under our feet and struck those who were climb- 

 ing lower down. We were soon obliged to descend in the deep bed of 

 the torrent itself, the rocky bottom of which is frequently so steep 

 and smooth, that, although with naked feet, we often lost our footing 

 and slid down for many yards. The mountain became gradually 

 more naked, barren and steep ; the little shrubs were more and more 

 scattered and apart ; and soon the ash-gray naked mountain wall 

 lay before us, sterile and destitute of all verdure, and interrupted 

 only by green fissures. Only Gaultheria repens and climbing Ly co- 

 podia accompanied us still higher up ; the above-mentioned lichens, 

 some mosses, and the Polypodium vulcanicum reach in fact to the rim 

 of the crater. 



Ascent of the Mud-Volcano Galungung. 



On the flatter and smoother tract spread out between the hills and 

 the foot of the mountain, commences a frightful jungle. Everything, 

 as far as the eye can reach, is covered with Saccharum Klaga, a jun- 

 caceous species of grass, which reaches a height of fifteen feet, and 

 the stalk of which is so thick that it is only possible to make a way 

 through it with the greatest effort. The intermediate spaces are 

 filled up with a species of Equisetum, which rises ten feet high, and in 

 the midst of which some species ^f Vanilla and other Orchidece 

 unfold their blossoms. At the same time all the ground is soaked 

 with moisture, so that at every moment one steps into little puddles 

 or black channels of mud, which diffuse a mouldy smell, or into 

 brooks and little ditches, which with a depth of several feet are often 

 scarcely a foot wide, and which cross the jungle in all directions. 

 These communicate with larger rivulets, which wind slowly, and 

 often quite hidden by the jungle, through this lower tract, and are 

 only discovered by their noise. They quickly overflow their banks, 

 when more water falls down the mountains after a heavy rain than 

 can flow off in a short time from the slightly inclined rush-covered 

 soil, which moreover is shut in by some low hills in front. 



An idea may be formed of the impenetrability of such a thicket, 

 from the fact, that since yesterday more than three hundred Japanese 

 have been engaged in cutting a small path for us, not wider than 

 one or two feet. We here found a fresh proof of what we had al- 

 ready previously experienced, that such jungles in Java are much 

 more impassable than the thickest primitive forests. At one time we 

 were obliged to make our way along little furrows or ditches, filled 

 with water ; at another, to wade through deep rivulets covered with 

 loose masses of rock ; at another, to wade through boggy parts, which 

 were only covered wdth spongy layers of klaga ; again, at another 

 time, we had to follow the path just before hewn out, where we ran 

 the risk, from an insecure footing, of being impaled on the sharp 

 cut-off stems of the klaga. 



The little paths which had been formed by the tigers and rhino- 

 ceroses in the klaga were very serviceable to us, so that towards 

 eleven o'clock we had passed the most wearisome and boggy portion 

 of the thicket, and came to a more open tract, where we were most 



Ann. §• Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvi. Suppl. 2 L 



