328 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHirELAGO. 



time, to vary the scenery, we passed tlirougli tlie nar- 

 rows, and encamped on a clianning little l^eacli on 

 the island side of the strait, between two high, pre- 

 cipitous crags. Our first care was, of course, to con- 

 struct a tent, a work soon finished by our large crew. 

 At 11 A. M. we all felt a heavy earthquahe-shock, 

 which lasted, apparently, thirty seconds ; but these 

 are frequent phenomena in this part of Celebes. On 

 the 25th of last month, not four weeks ago, there was 

 a very heavy earthquake over the whole Minahassa. 

 At Kema we could still see great rents in the ground, 

 three or four inches wide, which could be traced for 

 several rods. The shock was so severe that nearly 

 every article of glass or earthen- ware in the contro- 

 leur'^s house was broken into fras-ments. Indeed, as 

 I look up now toward the west, I do not wonder 

 the earth heaves l)eneath us like a troubled sea ; for 

 there rises the old volcano kno^vn in olden times 

 as Mount Tonkoko. It has a great yawning crater, 

 six hundred feet deep, out of which are rising thick, 

 white clouds of gas. On the northwest side a deep 

 ravine cuts through its flanks, and opens out into the 

 crater. Farther down this same side is the new cone, 

 beneath which we pitched our camp last night. In 

 1806 a great eruption began in this old volcano, and 

 ashes, sand, and pumice-stone were thrown out in great 

 quantities. At Ayar-madidi the ashes were fine and 

 of a gray color, and covered the ground with a layer 

 an inch thick. For two days the heavens were 

 darkened by the great quantity of these light mate- 

 rials floating in the air. So many stones were ejected, 

 that at a distance of nearlv three miles a new cone 



