THE NORTH COAST OF JAVA. 45 



noticed it. It was Mount Slamat, whicli attains an 

 elevation of eleven thousand three hundi'ed and thiity 

 English feet above the sea — the highest peak but 

 one among the many lofty mountains on Java, and, 

 like most of them, an active volcano. The upper 

 limit of vegetation on it is three thousand feet below 

 its crest. The northern coast of Java is so low here 

 that this mountain, instead of appearing to rise up, 

 as it does, from the interior of the island, seemed 

 close by the shore — an effect which occurs in viewing 

 nearly all these lofty peaks while the observer is 

 sailing on the Java Sea. M. Zollinger, a Swiss, says 

 that at sunrise the tops of these loftiest peaks are 

 brightened with the same rose-red glow that is seen 

 on Monte Kosa and Mont Blanc when the sun is 

 setting, and once or twice I thought I observed the 

 same charming phenomenon. The lowlands and the 

 lower declivities of all the mountains seen to-day are 

 under the highest state of cultivation. Indeed, this 

 ])art of Java may be correctly described as one mag- 

 nificent garden, di^dded into small lots by lines of 

 thick evergreens, and tall, feathery palm-trees. This 

 afternoon we steamed into the open roadstead of Sam- 

 arang during a heavy rain-squall ; for though the 

 " western monsoon," or " rainy season," is past, yet 

 nearly every afternoon we have a heavy shower, and 

 every one is speaking of the great damage it is likely 

 to do to the rice and sugar crops which are just now 

 ripening. The heavy rain-squall cleared away the 

 thick haze that filled the sky, and the next morning 

 I went on shore to see the city. A few miles direct- 

 ly back of it rises the sharp peak of Ungarung to a 



