THE BROMO — MARVELLOUS VIEW. 6j 



view was superb. He was standing on the spur of the 

 mountain under some venerable cassuarina trees ; on each 

 side were deep ravines beautifully wooded, but the grand 

 view of all was in the direction from which we had come. 

 Away down, some thousand feet, was the village we had 

 left with its variegated cod-roy looking gardens ; beyond, 

 the forest clad hills and dark ravines extended down, down, 

 till the eye reached the plain below, and beyond again, the 

 whole of the eastern part of the island was spread out like a 

 map ; we could see both the north and south coasts and could 

 almost look into the crater of the Lamongan. It was, indeed, 

 a glorious sight ! Soon after, we approached the bare summit 

 of the highest point we had to ascend ; even the cassuarina 

 trees did not grow here, nothing but a short kind of grass ; 

 iust before arriving at the summit I left the path and rode 

 up to the top of a rounded hill to see what there was beyond. 

 A most extraordinary sight met my view ; I looked down on 

 the Bromo and the sandy sea a thousand feet below me. 

 When I first beheld it, the so-called sea was covered with a 

 beautiful gauze of clouds which gradually cleared away 

 disclosing the broad expanse of sand. The steep wall of 

 rock by which it is surrounded is covered with cassuarina 

 trees, the beautiful green mountains in the centre, contrasting 

 strongly with the one scorched and bare corner which forms 

 the present crater of the Bromo, and presenting the most 

 beautiful and at the same time most extraordinary scene I had 

 ever beheld. I stood upon nearly the highest part of the 

 outer wall, as it may be called, and in front of me was a 

 desert of sand, many miles in extent. 



At the furthest right hand corner of the mass of moun- 

 tains is the volcano of the Bromo, bleak and scorched, 



