354 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



bottom of its basin. On the northeast end there is 

 a large solfatara, like the one we passed in coming 

 down to the lake, but larger. Here it was that the 

 Italian count, Carlo de Vidua, who had travelled over 

 a large part of the globe, met with a misfortune that 

 caused his untimely death. He ventured too far on 

 the soft, hot clay, and sank in, and before the natives, 

 who had cautioned him against going there, could 

 take him out, he was burned so badly that he died 

 in a short time afterward at Amboina, whither he 

 was taken, that he might be cared for in the best 

 possible manner. He had travelled over a consid- 

 erable portion of our own continent, and, after 

 escaping many imminent dangers, ventured in this 

 spot too far. Such is the history of many a daring 

 traveller, and no one who comes out here, where on 

 the sea there are pirates, and on the land earth- 

 quakes and savage beasts, and in some places still 

 more savage men, can know at what moment he is 

 planning a fatal voyage, or when he is taking the step 

 that may be his last. Yet some one must take this 

 risk if the limited boundaries of our knowledge of 

 these remote lands are ever to be extended. 



Although the water of this lake is largely im- 

 pregnated with sulphur and other substances that 

 rise up through its bottom, yet Dr. Bleeker found 

 two kinds of fish here, Opliioceplialus striatus, BL, 

 and Arrahas scandens, Cuv., and an eel, Anguilla 

 Elphin8tone% Syk., which are also found in the ft^esh 

 waters of Java and Sumatra, and in India. Return- 

 ing to the main road, we continued on to Sonder, and, 

 passing through a part of the village, came to the 



