THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE BAXDAS. 241 



water rose nine feet liigher tliiin in common spring 

 floods. Several liouses near tlie sea were broken 

 into pieces and washed away, and tlie ship Briel, 

 lying near by, was whirled round three times." * 



However, all these events are but as yesterday 

 when we glance over the early histoiy of this an- 

 cient volcano ; for, if we can judge by analogy, taking 

 as our guide the gi^eat crater already referred to as 

 this day existing among the lofty Tenger Mountains 

 on Java, we see in our mind's eye an immense vol- 

 canic mountain before us. From its high crater dui'- 

 ing the lapse of time pour out successive overflows 

 of lava which has solidified into the trachyte of 

 Lontar. That period is succeeded by one in which 

 ashes, sand, and hot stones are ejected, and which 

 insensibly passes into recent times. During one of 

 these mighty throes the western half of the crater- 

 wall disappeared beneath the sea, if the process of 

 subsidence had gone on so far at that time. Slowly 

 it sinks until it is at least four feet lower than at the 

 present day, for ^ve found on the western end of 

 Lontar a large bank of coral rock at that height. 

 The outer islands are now wholly submerged. This 

 period of subsidence is followed by one of up- 

 heaval, but not till the slow-building coral polyps 

 had made great reefs, which have become white, 

 chalky cliffs, and attained their present elevation 

 above the sea. A tropical vegetation by degrees 



* In this case the facts that the water in the roads did not pour out 

 into the sea, and that the " flood " did not come until half an hour after 

 the shock had occurred, indicate that this wave had its origin elsewhere, 

 and that there is no need of supposing, as in accounting for the great 

 wave of 1852, that any part of the group was raised or depressed. 

 16 



