226 A NATUBALIST IN CELJEBES ch. ix 



villages in this region composed of well-built comfortable 

 looking houses. In the middle of the high road at the 

 centre of the village is a handsome wooden church, in some 

 respects one of the most pleasing edifices in Minahassa, and 

 not far from this are one or two large houses belonging to 

 the planters and the village chiefs. In nearly every com- 

 pound round the houses of the natives may be seen a 

 number of healthy coffee-trees, some of them well-trimmed 

 and neat, others growing in wild and disorderly profusion. 

 In some of the better gardens there are seen roses, poin- 

 settias, bougainvilleas, castor-oil plants, with pansies and 

 many seedlings sent from Europe, whilst potatoes, beans, 

 asparagus, and other vegetables are cultivated for the 

 table. One gentleman whose garden I visited had a fine 

 collection of birds in large wire cages, and prided him- 

 self on the great variety of flowers, shrubs, and vegetables 

 he was able to raise. 



Not far from Langowan there are some hot- water springs, 

 and these, together with the numerous deposits of sulphur 

 which abound in many places, tell the story of the volcanic 

 nature of the district. Soon after leaving Langowan there 

 is a low steep hill of a fine golden gravelly soil, and beyond 

 that the road gradually slopes up to the highest level of the 

 Saputan Pass. 



This little hill of gravel looks very much like a former 

 lake beach, and I think it is very probable that Lake 

 Tondano, now nearly five miles off, once reached across the 

 plains of Langowan as far as this point. The aspect of the 

 whole country round the lake had previously caused me to 

 believe that it must have been at one time far more exten- 

 sive than it is now, but I had no evidence before of the 

 position of its former banks. 



Three miles and a half from Langowan we turned off 

 from the high road into a track which led through the 



