74 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



axis of three omd a half and a major axis oifowr and 

 a half miles. It is the largest crater in Java, and 

 one of the largest in the world. Its bottom is a level 

 floor of sand, which in some places is drifted by the 

 wind like the sea, and is properly named in Malay 

 the Laut Pasar, or "Sandy Sea." From 'this sandy 

 floor rise four cones, where the eruptive force has suc- 

 cessively found vent for a time, the greatest being 

 evidently the oldest, and the smallest the present 

 active Bromo, or Brama, from the Sanscrit Brama, 

 the god of fire. The position and relation of this 

 Bromo, as compared to the surrounding crater, is en- 

 tirely analogous to those that exist between Vesuvius 

 and Monte Somma. The outer walls of this old 

 mountain are of trachytic lava, and Dr. Junghuhn 

 thinks its history may be summed up thus : first, a 

 period when the trachyte was formed ; this was fol- 

 lowed by a period of trachytic lavas, then of obsid- 

 ian ; fourth, of obsidian and pumice-stone ; fifth, 

 the sand period, during which an enormous quantity 

 of sand was thrown out, and the present sandy floor 

 formed with the cones rising from it ; and sixth, the 

 present ash-period, during which only fine ashes are 

 thrown out from time to time, and steam and sul- 

 phurous acid gas are constantly emitted. 



The earliest descriptions of this crater represent 

 it nearly as it is seen at the present day; but great 

 eruptions, similar to the one supposed to have oc- 

 curred, have been witnessed by Europeans since they 

 first came to Java. In the year 1772 the volcano 

 Papandayang, which is near the south coast of Java, 

 and aljout in Long. 108° E., threw out such an 



