500 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



roofs, and are covered witli atap, but here they are 

 larger and lower ; and the roofs are nearly flat, and 

 covered wdth bamboos split into halves and placed 

 side by side, mth the concave side upward. Over the 

 edges of these are placed other j)ieces of bamboo, with 

 the concave side downward. This is the oniy place 

 in the archipelago where I have seen this simple and 

 easy mode of making a roof. 



April ^-Uh. — Finding myself veiy ill from over- 

 exertion during the past two days, and that the next 

 two days' journeys must be long and fatiguing, I rest 

 here and enjoy the cool, refreshing air of Kopaiyong 

 for a day. The controleur informs me that the vol- 

 canic cone northeast of us was formed duiing an 

 eruption which took place only a year ago, and that, 

 for some time previous to the eruption, heavy earth- 

 quakes occui-red here very frequently ; but since the 

 gases that were pent up beneath the mountain have 

 found a vent, only one earthquake has been expe- 

 rienced, and that was very slight. This is the most 

 active volcano I have seen. A great quantity of white 

 gas is now rising most grandly. At one moment it 

 appears like a great sheaf, and at the next instant 

 slowly changes into a pei'pendicular column, and this 

 again becomes an immense inverted cone, which 

 seems supported in the sky by resting its apex on 

 the summit of the volcano beneath it. The whole 

 amount of trade at this place in a year amounts to 

 one hundred thousand guilders (forty thousand dol- 

 lars). The traders are Chinamen, Arabs, and a few 

 Dutchmen. They obtain fr'om the natives coffee and 

 tobacco, and give them in return cotton goods, knives. 



