SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF GARDENS. 357 



wave to and fro, though where the beholder stands, 

 not the slightest breeze is moving in the air. We 

 had come at just the right time to see it when it 

 is most charming, for the early sun was then shoot- 

 ing oblique bands of bright light across the falling 

 water, and as the stream is divided into millions of 

 drops the moment it curves over the edge of the 

 cliff, those pearly sj)heres were now lighted up and 

 now darkened, as repeatedly they shot out of the 

 shaded parts into the bands of golden light. 



Returning to Sonder, I proceeded along the main 

 route in the southeast direction to Sonder Tua, " Old 

 Sonder," and Kawangtoan, and thence to the lovely 

 negri of Tompasso. During this distance, of about 

 eight miles, we had slowly ascended until we were 

 about five hundred and seventy-five feet above Son- 

 der. The \aew here is open on all sides. In the 

 southwest is Mount Tompasso, which attains an ele- 

 vation of over thirty-eight hundred feet. In the 

 southeast the high, steep mountains are seen that 

 border this elevated plain on the south. Great land- 

 slides appear on their sides ; and the people at Tom- 

 passo said that, not long before, three natives, who 

 had cleared and planted large gardens on the steep 

 declivities, went one morning to continue their labor, 

 as usual, when to their great surprise their gardens 

 had disappeared, and all that was left of them was a 

 huge heap of sandstones and fragments of trees 

 piled up on the edge of the plain. 



This village is laid out with a large, square pond 

 in the middle, and on a broad dike which crosses it 

 is the highway. A well-graded street borders this 



