154 AUSTRALASIA. 



Here the crater is flooded with an " alum lake," that is, with water saturated with 

 sulphur and alum, at the normal atmospheric temperature. But a few miles to the 

 north-east, at the source of the Chi Widei, lies a cirque of hot mud emitting acid 

 vapours of a sulphurous odour, which are disintegrating the surrounding rocks. 



East of Patuha the volcanic cones follow in great apparent disorder, connected 

 with each other by elevated ridges, and enclosing upland valleys, whence the 

 streams flow through narrow outlets to northern river basins. One of these volca- 

 noes, the Malabar, or Rose Mountain (7,800 feet), no longer retains its conic shape ; 

 its crater is almost effaced, and its former activity is indicated only by two thermal 

 springs. But farther south, Mount Wajang (7,200 feet) still preserves on its 

 west flank a magnificent solfatara, a little geyser with a jet of 10 feet, recurring 

 at intervals of two or three minutes, and a stream of sulphur and alum waters. 

 Still more active is Papandajan, or the "Forge" (8,700 feet), whose breached 

 crater contains nearly all the elements of volcanic laboratories, sulphurous swamps 

 at boiling point, mud cones, snorting, groaning, and ejecting mud and stones, hot 

 springs and jets rushing out with a hissing sound. All the voices of the volcano 

 are merged in one deafening yet rhythmic uproar, suggesting a vast workshop with 

 the voice of a thousand hammers mingling with its hissing jets of vapour. A 

 rivulet which enters the " Forge " pure and limpid, emerges boiling and saturated 

 with sulphur. In 1772, Papandajan was the scene of one of the most tremendous 

 eruptions of modern times, but at that time the district had been visited by no 

 European naturalist, and the reports of the natives are of a contradictory character. 



North of Papandajan, but forming part of the same group, stands the Gunong 

 Guntur, or "Thunder Mountain" (7,450 feet), which, unlike all the other Java- 

 nese mountains, is absolutely bare from base to summit. It forms a huge greyish 

 black mass presenting a uniform surface broken only by the lava blocks half buried 

 in the scoria. During eruptions the whole cone has been illumined by the burning 

 ashes ejected from its crater, for Guntur ranks with Lamongan as the most active 

 volcano in Java. The surrounding plantations have often been covered with the 

 ashes ejected during its outbursts. In 1843 Junghuhn estimated at ten million 

 tons the quantity of sands thrown to a height of 10,000 feet, and for a time darken- 

 ing the face of the sun ; yet this was only a minor display. 



Galungung, or the " Cymbal Mountain" (7,400 feet), although less active than 

 Guntur, was the theatre of two terrific outbursts in 1822, when the din was heard 

 over the whole island. The showers of stones and ashes were on both occasions 

 accompanied by a deluge of mud, the pent-up reservoirs overflowing on the sur- 

 rounding plains, and covering villages, rice fields, coffee plantations, and forests 

 with a layer of greyish blue mud in some places 50 feet thick. All vegetation 

 had disappeared for a space of over 12 miles, and 114 villages, with a total 

 population of 4,000, were completely inundated. Magnificent forests have since 

 resumed possession of the flanks of the volcano and surrovmding district. A 

 little to the west lies the Telaga Bodas, or " White Lake," where the sulphurous 

 clays are kept at boiling point by incessant jets of vapour. In the neighbourhood 

 is the famous Pajagalan, or " Field of Slaughter," which emits deadly exhalations, 



