160 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL 



sulphur. Korinchi, which was found to measure about 

 3600 metres, m other words, not far short of 12,000 

 feet, is a far finer peak, with an enormous crater, some 

 hundreds of yards in depth, which appears to emit steam 

 ahiiost without intermission. Other volcanoes, of scarcely 

 less importance, occupy the more southern portion of the 

 chain, the chief of which are Kaba and Dempo. The 

 former, although of comparatively low altitude (5413 

 feet), has been cpiite recently the scene of a succession of 

 eruptions which, though not destructive to human life, 

 have covered the surrounding districts with sand, and 

 destroyed its vegetation and animals. Dempo, visited 

 and described by Mr. H. 0. Forbes, attains a height of 

 10,562 feet. It is in a state of constant activity, and 

 every three or four years discharges a " sulphur rain " 

 which injures or destroys all the crops in the adjacent 

 country. The Merapi, or present active crater, is about 

 half a mile in diameter, with a lake of liquid mud at the 

 bottom, some 70 yards across, which is from time to 

 time converted into a gigantic geyser. Mr. Forbes thus 

 describes the phenomenon : — 



" We had sat thus for ten or twelve minutes when 

 I noted that the centre of the white basin had become 

 intensely black and scored with dark streaks. This area 



gradually increased The lake was becoming 



engulfed. A few minutes later a dull, sullen roar 

 was heard, and I had just time to conjecture within 

 myself whence it had proceeded, when the whole lake 

 heaved and rose in the air for some hundreds of feet, not 

 as if violently ejected, but with calm, majestic upheaval, 

 and then fell back on itself with an awesome roar, which 

 reverberated round and round the vast caldron, and 

 echoed from rocky wall to rocky wall like the surge of 

 an angry sea ; and the immense volume of steam, let 



