THE VALLEY OF DEATH. 53 



fissures in the eartli's crust, but tlie elevating power 

 appears only to have found vent at certain separate 

 points along these fissui-es. At these points sub-aerial 

 eruptions of volcanic ashes, sand, and scorise have oc- 

 curred, and occasionally streams of basaltic and tra- 

 chytic lava have poured out, until no less than thirty- 

 eight cones, some of immense size, have been formed 

 on this island. Their peculiar character is, that they 

 are distinct and separate mountains, and not peaks 

 in a continuous chain. 



The second characteristic of these mountains is 

 the great quantity of sulphur they produce. White 

 clouds of sulphurous acid gas continually wreath the 

 crests of these high peaks, and betoken the unceasing 

 activity within their gigantic masses. This gas is the 

 one that is formed when a fiiction-match is lighted, 

 and is, of course, extremely destructive to all animal 

 and vegetable life. 



At various localities in the vicinity of active vol- 

 canoes and in old craters this gas still escapes, and the 

 famous " Guevo Upas " or Valley of Poison, on the 

 flanks of the volcano Papandayang, is one of these 

 areas of noxious vapors. It is situated at the head 

 of a valley on the outer declivity of the mountain, five 

 liundred or seven hundred feet below the rim of the old 

 crater which contains the " Telao;a Bodas " or White 

 Lake. It is a small, bare place, of a })ale gray or yellow- 

 ish color, containing many crevices and openings from 

 A\'hich carbonic acid gas pours out from time to time. 

 Here both Mr. Reuiwardt and Dr. Junghuhn saw a 

 great number of dead animals of various kinds, as dogs, 

 cats, tigers, rhinoceroses, squirrels, and other rodents, 



