THE DEVIL'S DWELLING. 437 



ity beneatli those seen at the surface. Although 

 I looked carefully, I could detect no leaves or stems 

 of plants, or any organic remains, by which the geo- 

 logical age of this coal could be determined ; but the 

 position of the layers parallel to the surface, or last 

 folding the strata have undergone, agrees with its 

 mineral characters in placing it, like the other coals 

 of Sumatra, in the tertiary period. 



As I came to Siboga from the south, over the low 

 land around the bay, I noticed on my right a high, 

 pei'pendicular cliff composed of recent strata that 

 were horizontal, and which must have been deposited 

 beneath the ocean, because the opposite side of the 

 valley is open to the sea, with only hills at intervals 

 along its shore, and even their forms indicate that 

 they are of the same sedimentary origin. This cliff 

 the natives call in Malay the Hiima Satan^ or " the 

 Devil's Dwelling." It was on the western declivity 

 of the mountains which sweep round parallel to the 

 shore. The Resident gave orders to the rajah of Si- 

 buluan, a native village about foui' miles south of 

 Siboga, to go with me and show me the way. Wlien 

 I came to that village I found the rajah was a young 

 man, and evidently afraid of such an undertaking. 

 In the first place, we must be exposed to the cannibal 

 Battas, and even travel among them ; but I assured 

 him that that, so far from making me desire to turn 

 back, only made me the more anxious to go on, 

 for I liked to see all kinds of people, and I had no 

 fear that the Battas would eat me. Fiudinsj he 

 could not induce me to give up what he evidently 

 considered a most venturesome journey, he summoned 



