TRUE VOLCANOES. 301 



Tbe principal axis 87 of the closely approximated series of 

 the Javanese volcanoes (more than 45 in number) has a 

 direction W.N.W E.S.E. (exactly W. 12 K), and there- 

 fore principally parallel to the series of volcanoes of the 

 eastern part of Sumatra, but not to the longitudinal axis of 

 the island of Java. This general direction of the chain of 

 volcanoes by no means excludes the phenomenon to which 

 attention has very recently been directed in the great chain 

 of the Himalaya, that three or four individual high summits 

 are so arranged together, that the small axes of these partial 

 series form an oblique angle with the primary axis of the 

 chain. This phenomenon of fissure, which has been observed 

 and partially described b8 by Hodgson, Joseph Hooker, and 

 Strachey, is of great interest. The small axes of the subsi- 

 diary fissures meet the great axis, sometimes almost at a 

 right angle, and even in volcanic chains, the actual maxima 

 of elevation are often situated at some distance from the 

 major axis. As in most linear volcanoes, no definite pro- 

 portion is observed in Java, between the elevation and the 

 size of the crater at the summit. The two largest craters 

 are those of Gunung Tengger and Gunung Raon. The former 

 of these is a mountain of the third class, only 8704 feet in 

 height. Its circular crater is, however, more than 21,315 feet, 

 and therefore nearly four geographical miles in diameter. 

 The flat bottom of the crater is a sea of sand, the surface of 

 which lies 1865 feet below the highest point of the surrounding 

 wall, and in which scoriaceous lava-masses project here and 

 there from the layer of pounded rapilli. Even the enormous 

 crater of Kirauea, in Owhyhee, which is filled with glowing 

 lava, does not, according to the accurate trigonometrical 

 survey of Captain Wilkes, and the excellent observations 

 of Dana, attain the size of that of Gunung Tengger. In the 

 middle of the crater of the latter there rise four small cones 

 of eruption, actual circumvallated funnel-shaped chasms, of 

 which only one, Bromo (the mythical name Brahma, a word 

 which has the signification of fire, in the Kawi although 



87 Junghuhn, Java, Bd. i. s. 80. 



83 See Joseph Hooker, Sketch-Map of SiJchim, 1850, and in his 

 Himalayan Journals, vol. i, 1854, Map of part of Bengal; and also 

 Strachey, Map of West-Nari, in his Physical Geography of Western 

 Tibet, 1853. 



