IN SUMATRA. 231 



to the summit I found placed but a few yards from the crater 

 edge. On reaching the brink the first look quite startled me. I 

 stood on the edge of a sheer precipice 600 or 700 feet in depth, 

 looking down into a gigantic unevenly-floored pit bounded 

 by perpendicular walls which till a short time previously 

 had been a lake. The floor was of a deep blue-black colour, 

 giving vent at various points to jets of steam. From this 

 standpoint it seemed that there was no possible way of reaching 

 the crater floor than by leaping over the precipice ; but, on 

 proceeding along its rim, I found a spot where the cliffs became 

 considerably lower. This less elevated wall turned out to be 

 only a dividing dyke separating the western from another 

 much greater and more irregular eastern crater, into which I 

 would not venture to descend, as, on probing its floor, it 

 treacherously gave way under the weight of our feet. ]n the 

 ugly rents and chasms athwart it, and in the great unsightly 

 blocks of stone furiously piled up against each other in all 

 directions, giving issue between them to steam and foetid 

 vapours, it was not inviting. To reach the western floor we 

 descended a declivity of some 70°, scrambling sometimes on 

 hands and feet sometimes sliding on our heels, not without an 

 eerie feeling, for, though all looked still and quiet, there was 

 a continuous and awesome sound, waxing and waning like an 

 angry sea breaking on a shingly shore. The whole surface 

 was covered with a layer of black sand and irregular fragments 

 of stone, many of them of great size and weight, chipped and 

 indented by the impact of others falling on them. The lake, 

 which a few years before filled it, had disappeared. The soil 

 was quite porous, and on the surface unpleasantly hot to 

 the hand, but further down candescent enough to scorch my 

 walking-stick thrust into it ; from the -whole surface vapours 

 gently emanated, leaving variously coloured deposits. At one 

 spot several great cauldrons were in fierce ebullition, emitting 

 steam, with a roar like some cyclopean engine blowing off power 

 which the walls resolved into the sound of a surf-beaten shore ; 

 and besides, vapour, sand, water, and white and rich chrome 

 coloured muds, tinged with alum and sulphur. 



Three years had elapsed since its previous eruption had ceased 

 and six since it had commenced. Before that time it had been 

 quiescent since about 1833. The whole country for twenty miles 



