FEAR OF THE BAROMETER. 47 



through a hank of pebbles thrown up by the surf. 

 The cliff, from top to bottom, consisted of regularly 

 stratified lines of pebbles of lava and black volcanic 

 sand ; it had evidently once been beaten on by the 

 sea, and the plain below consisted of its detritus, 

 but this plain was so little above the sea level, that 

 I could not say whether an actual elevation of the 

 land had taken place ; or whether the sea had 

 merely become shallower, and at length banked 

 itself out by the action of its own waves. A cart track 

 wound down the cliff, and a bullock waggon and 

 some horses were on the plain below, belonging to a 

 party of natives, who had come for sea bathing.* 

 I set up my barometer in the shade of an old tree, 

 but several of the natives who stood by seemed 

 rather suspicious of my intentions with such an 

 extraordinary looking instrument ; and two women 

 crept under the bullock waggon, apparently in 

 order to be out of the way of any explosion that 

 might take plaee. 



The southern coast stretched away on either 

 hand in cliffs and headlands of a greater height 

 than those near us, and it seemed to be perpetually 

 beaten by a heavy surf, of which the spray caused 

 quite a haze in the atmosphere. A few miles to the 

 S.E. of us was the island called Nusa Baron, sur- 



* Sea bathing is used by the Javanese as a remedy for sick 

 people in general ; but I believe the south sea " laut kedul " 

 is especially looked upon as a restorative with somewhat of a 

 superstitious feeling. 



