398 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



defined tliat tlie buffaloes, feeding on the grass-lands 

 above, unconsciously venture too far, and of course 

 are instantly killed by sucli a higli fall, and, for this 

 reason, the Dutch call them " buffalo holes." 



At several places small tributaries come in as 

 branches to the main stream, which here flows to the 

 northwest, and the tongue of land in the acute angle 

 of such branches rises up like a perpendicular wall 

 with a sharp edge. These deep valleys resemble the 

 canons of the Colorado, which were also formed by 

 the erosive action of running water ; but here the sce- 

 nery is on a small scale compared to those deep, dark, 

 gloomy chasms. Two or three times we climbed 

 the zigzag path that led up the sides of one valley, 

 and then went down again into the next valley. The 

 bottoms of these canons, being well watered, are admir- 

 ably suited for the cultivation of rice, and here were 

 some plats still overflowed where the rice was only 

 a few inches high, and not far from them others, 

 where the natives were collecting the ripe, golden 

 blades. Such a mingling of planting the seed, 

 and gathering in the ripe grain, appeared the more 

 strange when I thought of our temperate climat(3, 

 where we are obliged to sow at a certain time in the 

 year or reap no harvest. The higher lands between 

 these valleys form a plateau, which, from Fort de 

 Kock to Matua, is very sterile when compared to the 

 high land farther south. 



From Matua our course changed to the west and 

 lay through broad sawas filled with half-grown rice. 

 It slowly ascended, until we found ourselves on the 

 edge of a crater of most enormous dimensions. Thick 



