516 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



out, we had a fine view of tlie Pasuma country. It 

 is a plateau whicli spreads out to the southeast and 

 east from the feet of the great Dempo, the highest 

 and most magnificent mountain in all this region. The 

 lower part of this volcano appeared in all its details, 

 but thick clouds unfortunately concealed its summit. 

 Considerable quantities of opaque gases are said to 

 have poured out of its crater, but it does not appear 

 to have undergone any great eruption since the 

 Dutch established themselves in this region. It is 

 the most southern and eastern of the many active 

 volcanoes on this island. Like the Merapi in the 

 Padang plateau, the Dempo does not rise in the 

 Barizan chain nor in one parallel to it, but in a trans- 

 verse range. Here there is no high chain parallel to 

 the Barizan, as there is at Kopaiyong, where the Musi 

 takes its rise, and also north of Mount Ulu Musi con- 

 tinuously through the Korinchi country all the way 

 to the Batta Lands. Another and a longer transverse 

 elevation appears in the chain which forms the bound- 

 ary between this residency of Palembang and that of 

 Lampong, and which is the water-shed, extending in 

 a northeasterly direction ft'om Lake Kanau to the Java 

 Sea. The height of Mount Dempo has been variously 

 estimated at from ten thousand to twelve thousand 

 feet, but I judge that it is not higher than the Merapi, 

 and that its summit therefore is not more than nine 

 thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. 

 The Pasuma plateau is undoubtedly the most 

 densely-peopled area in this part of the island. Its 

 soil is described to me, by those who have seen it, as 

 exceedingly fertile, and quite like that of the .Musi 



