( 402 ) 



i. e. beliiiid ihc culiiiuii ut' lire aiul smoke, a new cloud of smoke 

 appeared and stones were thrown up, a phenomenon that was, liowever, 

 every time only of short duration. 



The activity of' cono 4 was at that lime restricted to tlie pushing' 

 out of white and bhie smoke at the outside, wliilst a noise v/as 

 heard "like the rumbling of near thunder or lieavy breakers on a 

 coral-reef". (The Malay itinerary mentioned al)0ve). It was then 

 comparatively (juiet, and it is not to l)e wondered that in the 

 beginning- Mr. Schoch regarded not this cone but cojie 5 as the 

 principal seat of the activity and the |)oint of issue of the block- 

 stream, the more so as the height of this pimiacled mountain, then 

 sloping dovvji smoothly by being covered with sand and grit, was 

 over-estimated. Relating to these facts Mr. Schucu wiole me moruovei- : 

 "By the violent winds in August and September however all the 

 "sand and grit was blown away and only the naked blocks of rock 

 "were left, so that it had the ap[)earance of a high benteng. That 

 "it was higher in September than in August was an optical delusion 

 "caused by the greater sercnily of the atmosphere in Septendx'r, and 

 "because 1 was then in the immediate vicinity". On all sides dense 

 clouds of smoke escaped then from this skeleton of blocks, whilst 

 the stones taken fiom the slope weie still vei'y hot. Cone 5 on the 

 contrary was entirely extinguished; the bottom of its fuunel-siiapeil 

 crater was "perfectly dry, sandy and without any smoke". Its 

 activity, however important and imposing it may have been, has 

 consequently oidy been a transitory episode of the complex of phe- 

 nomena of 1906. 



It would certainly be j-emarkable if liie masses of blocks and grit 

 had emerged from two separate crater-vents and had united inio 

 one single stream, without leaving behind in its relief any trace of 

 .thai twofold origin. It is only by a further local inxestigation that 

 the desirable cerlainlv in this res[)ect may be obtained. 1 must con- 

 sequently conliue myself to point — if need be as a hypothesis — 

 to the i)0ssibility, in my opinion even the probability, that the course 

 of events has been a'^ follows: On the s[)ot of cone 4, where, as 

 Mr. Limburg was iidbrmed, as early as the ejid of May some activity 

 pi the earth coidd be observed, most likely consisting in a slight 

 npheaval, and onW there the grit- and scoria-mass has emerged, 

 initially by explosion, so that an encircling wall was piled u[), 

 which afterwards, as the mass was pushed on moi'C quietly, was 

 tilled in and prop[)ed up, had become irrecognizable as a crater, and 

 during the further process of pnshing oji and extending of the mass 

 to all sides, (Mr. Sciiocn compared the spreading out of the field 



