REACH MAJOAGO. 129 



this forest onto an open plain, with rice-fields in 

 stubble, galloping across which we came out onto a 

 wide and well beaten road, and turning to the left 

 entered the town of Majoago. 



This seemed a very extensive place, the central 

 square being surrounded by large brick houses, 

 standing in pleasure-grounds. We found the Wi- 

 dono was absent when our messenger arrived, but 

 that he had been sent for, and in the meantime a 

 breakfast was being prepared for us. There seemed, 

 however, to be great difficulty in procuring horses, 

 150 having died, as they assured us, within the last 

 few days, and most of the others being sick. It ap- 

 pears that the climate of Java is not favourable to 

 the horse, and that yearly, at particular seasons, 

 there is a great mortality and sickness among them, 

 more especially in the low country and the towns of 

 the coast. 



When my barometer arrived, I found the height 

 of Majoago above the sea by its indication to be 

 1 16 feet, and I was glad afterwards to be informed 

 by a Dutch engineer officer, that this was very 

 nearly its real height, as determined by levelling 

 along the banks of the Kediri. Barometrical mea- 

 surements, indeed, so near the equator, admit of 

 much greater certainty and precision than when 

 made out of the tropics. This is owing to the very 

 slight fluctuations exhibited by the column of mer- 

 cury at any one spot in tropical regions, so that it 

 becomes useless as a weather glass. 



VOL. II. K 



