400 TRAVELS IX THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



that distance, our road had zigzagged so continually 

 to tlie riglit and left, tliat we had travelled five miles. 

 Toward evening the rain ceased, and the controleur 

 conducted me a short distance north of the kampong 

 to a hot spring, where the natives have a square pool 

 for bathing, and covered it with a small house, for 

 they ascribe all sorts of healing ^di'tues to this warm 

 water. I found the water to be perfectly jDure to the 

 eye, and free from any sensible escape of gas. Its 

 temperature was 102|^° Fahrenheit, and an abundance 

 of algae was seen on the rocks beneath its surface. 



At sunset, the heavy clouds that had filled the 

 crater during the day slowly rose upward, but not 

 so high at first as to allow us to see the tops of the 

 peaks in the serrated crest of the crater-wall oppo- 

 site. The bright sunlight, therefore, shone in through 

 the triangular openings between the lower surface of 

 the level clouds, and the bottoms of the sharp val- 

 leys, and these oblique bands of golden light fell on 

 the water at some distance from the opposite shore, 

 and then came over the lake and illuminated the 

 place where we sat watching this unique and mag- 

 nificent view. 



After the sunlight had faded, the clouds rose 

 higher, and I could look round and behold all sides 

 of the largest crater it has been my privilege to see, 

 and indeed one of the largest in the world. The 

 general height of the wall does not vary much fi'om 

 that point where I crossed it coming down, and is 

 very steep, except at that place, and in many parts 

 nearly perpendicular. It is not circular, but com- 

 posed of two circles of unequal diameter, which 



