178 Report of a Jotii'iiey Aroinid the World. 



who was asleep b}' the roadside. As the light increased a pretty 

 flower appeared by the wayside, and more daylight revealed it as 

 turnip blossom, luxuriant, and both in white and bluish varieties. 

 The road was good and wide enough for chairbearers, but the 

 valleys on either hand had very steep sides, although generally 

 cultivated. We saw many dried pea vines, and considerable maize, 

 the ripened ears unhusked being arranged on racks for farther 

 drying. We at last made a considerable descent, then across cold 

 steam cracks and up again over a tufaceous soil, no lava being visible . 

 At last a shanty was reached on the edge of the so-called Tengger 

 crater where we were to have our breakfast, which one of our boys 

 had brought up with us. The view was excellent (Fig. 134), with 

 Smeroe, the highest of the Javanese volcanoes distinctly smoking 

 or giving out intermittent puffs of vapor. This was interesting as 

 Smeroe had been quiet for more than a week. Bromo was steam- 

 ing, but most of the cone was hidden behind the wonderfully 

 regular Gunung Batok whose sides are almost a counterpart of a 

 well-worn bevel gear, while farther back is the cone Widodareu; 

 the last two are apparently extinct. The descent to the Zand zee 

 was by a steep path through tufa, and once on the extensive plain 

 we trotted fast over the sand, which shows distinct ripple (wind) 

 marks and appears to be the detritus of the much eroded mud cones 

 that cluster in its midst. Only a series of photographs can give a 

 clear idea of these cones, which are about the same height, but 

 with distinctive features. They do not seem to be of the same 

 age, but I had no time to go around each, and the eroded mud had 

 buried the real bases of all the cones. 



This crater has been spoken of as the largest in the world 

 (Tengger), but I still believe that the carefully surveyed Haleakala 

 of the Hawaiian Islands is larger. The outer cliffs which have 

 been called the walls of the crater are of the same tufaceous struc- 

 ture that obtains for many miles around, and seem to me merely 

 faults in these immense tufa beds. Not a sign of lava walls any- 

 where. However, a geologist must not be too dogmatic on so slight 

 an inspection as we were able to make, and I had not a copy of 

 Junghuhn' at hand to see what that distinguished geologist had 

 decided in his far more lengthy and careful examination. It was 



'Junghuhn, Fr. Topografische iind natiir-ccisseiisihaftliche Reisen durch 

 Java. Herausgeg. van C. G. iSTees von Esenbeck. Magdeburg, 1845. With 

 atlas of 40 plates. [326] 



