126 VIEW OF DISTANT MOUNTAINS. 



us, precluded all view towards the east, but due 

 west of us, at a distance of nearly fifty miles, rose 

 Mount Wilis, and forty miles beyond that, again, in 

 the blue distant horizon, was Mount Lawu. Mount 

 Wilis was beautifully distinct, its sides just dappled 

 with a few white clouds floating above them. Both 

 were conical-shaped masses, though without any 

 regular summit cone, and the surrounding country 

 swelled gently up to them with an equal slope on all 

 sides. Between us and Mount Wilis lay the broad 

 valley of the Kediri, expanding towards the north 

 into the great plain of Sourabaya, over which we 

 could just see some low eminences rising at a great 

 distance in the north-west. By far the greater part of 

 the country below us seemed to be untouched forest, 

 the open cultivated parts shewing like mere patches 

 on its surface. A good part of this apparent forest, 

 however, contained coffee plantations, and many 

 plots of cultivated ground were hidden among it ; 

 but then, on the other hand, some of the green open 

 spaces were not cultivated, but merely covered with 

 the long coarse grass called alang alang, which is 

 used, I believe, solely for thatching. 



From this spot we proceeded over the same kind 

 of country as before, up and down steep and slippery 

 ascents and descents, the surface of the road being 

 generally an unctuous clay, passing frequently be- 

 tween large coffee plantations, till we arrived at a 

 small village called Wonosalam, where we expected 

 to get relays of horses, and coolies. We found 



