THE GUXONG API IX SAPI STRAIT. 107 



Lefore us. Its liigli top, j&ve thousand eight hundred 

 feet above the level of the sea, was hidden by hori- 

 zontal clouds, strati^ which parted while we were ob- 

 serving the mountain, and let down a band of bright 

 sunlight over its dark sides. It is not a single but a 

 double peak — the one to the northwest appearing from 

 the deep valleys and ravines in its sides to be the 

 older. On the eastern flanks of this peak, near the 

 shore, there appears to be an old crater, whose outer 

 wall has been washed away by the sea. For one-third 

 of the distance from the shore to the top of this peak 

 there is some shrubbery in the bottoms of the deep 

 ravines; but the remaining two-thirds are quite 

 bare. At its top, this mountain ends in a small 

 truncated cone. The southwestern peak seems to 

 have recently formed, for, from its top down to the 

 shore, on the southeast side, there is one continuous 

 sheet of fine volcanic materials, scored only by nar- 

 row grooves with perpendicular sides. When viewed 

 in profile, the unbroken sweep of its sides, from its 

 summit to the sea, was most majestic. It was so reg- 

 ular, that it was difiicult to believe it had not been 

 shaped by the hand of man. By this time we were 

 in the midst of the strait between Sumbawa and 

 Commodo, and soon we passed on the left hand Gil- 

 libanta, whose highest point is only twelve hundred 

 feet above the sea. Its name in Javanese means the 

 " one that disputes the way." It is merely the rem- 

 nant of an old crater, whose northwestern wall has 

 (lisappeafed beneath the sea. The southerly dip of 

 the successive ovei'flows of lava was plainly to be 

 seen. 



