IX.] ERUPTION OF KEAKATAU. 209 



largely to oiu- collectious, for the lake appeared to swarm with 

 water-bu-ds and waders. 



From the little hamlet of Limboto on the northern shore a 

 track leads over the mountains to Kwandang, a \dllage on the other 

 side of the peninsula, and by this means, and the help of native 

 praus, communication is kept up with Menado during the prevalence 

 of the south-east monsoon. Of its use we had evidence while we 

 were at G-orontalo, for from a letter sent overland in this manner 

 we got our first intelligence of the appalling eruption of Krakatau. 

 The inhabitants of Macassar had heard it plainly, and, as we had 

 sailed on the same morning with the intention of passing tlu'ough 

 the intricate Spermonde Archipelago, it was surmised that the 

 JIarchcsa had gone ashore and was firing guns for assistance, and a 

 prau was accordingly sent to discover oiu' whereabouts. We learnt 

 that the eruption had also been heard at sea off the island of 

 Bouton. At a later period of the voyage we found that the sound 

 of the explosions had actually reached Xew Guinea. 



The coast in the immediate neighbourhood of the Gorontalo 

 Eiver is utterly imtropical in appearance, and as different from 

 every other part of Celebes that we had seen as could well be 

 imagined. Bold, rocky promontories, and headlands on which 

 there is but little vegetation, replace the usual sandy beaches where 

 the dense jungle hangs over the water, and the wavelets break 

 in short, crisp plashes. Here the formation is granitic, and 

 enormous blocks of that rock, often twenty or thirty feet in height, 

 line the shore, which at this season is washed by a sea sufficiently 

 rough to make landing in a small boat diflficiilt, if not impossible. 

 It is only some distance inland, or in the deeper gullies, that any 

 patches of woodland occur. Pandani of a species we had not seen 

 before grew here — large, and with thick ringed trunks, and at a 

 distance looking like the Candelabra Euphorbia. Xor are the 

 inhabitants less different. Instead of the short, broad-faced natives 

 of the Tondano district, we found a taller and darker people 

 of mixed blood, many of whom had the piercing look of a 

 VOL. II. P 



