472 



A NATUEALIST'S WANDERINGS 



cr denuding agency, in the horizontally laid-down black 

 shingly detritus which I have already so often referred to, 

 plainly indicating that at some epoch not geologically very 

 remote, they had been long submerged, as the whole of Eastern 

 Timor seems to have been, below an arm of the sea, or pos- 

 sibly beneath an inland lake ; and after some hundreds of 

 feet had accumulated on them they were again subjected to 



elevation^which has gone on so long, and may still be pro- 

 gressing — that the rivers have- cut their way down througli 

 hundreds of feet in height, and cleared out ravines a thousand 

 or two of feet in width. Such is the story of the strange 

 vicissitudes of Eastern Timor revealed by the buried rocks in 

 the valley of the Fahiletan. 



At the entrance to the Eajah's compound I was startled by 

 suddenly coming on a tall pole with a fringed triangle near 



