EXPEDITION INTO INTERIOR OF SUMATRA, 5l 
rather more favourably situated by reason of its proximity to 
water. We commenced at once, therefore, to establish our- 
selves there, and after we had cleared and levelled a space of 6 
metres long by 2 broad, we put up a long shed or pondok, 
I will not weary you with a too detailed account of our 
undertaking. Suffice to say that after several fruitless at- 
tempts to push forward, we resolved on the 7th December to 
leave our koulis behind with the baggage, and to endeavour 
ourselves, each escorted by two men with axes, to reach the 
summit by different routes. 
On the 8th of December, about half-past twelve, I was 
only about 200 métres from the summit, when my guide, 
stumbling over a loose stone, fell on his face. Turning 
round, I found him sitting on a rock, his mouth was 
bleeding and his knee and arm were bruised. At this 
moment a violent peal of thunder, with at least a hundred 
reverberating echoes, broke over our heads. My euide 
instantly began to urge a return. “ Let us yo back, Tuan, 
since we know the way. Itis beginning to eet dark ‘and we 
are going to have heavy rain.’ “A second thunder- clap, as 
loud as the first, sounded almost as he spoke. 
“The mountain j is anery,” he continued “do not let us 
wait longer.”’ Looking up towards the summit where a short 
time before a picturesque crest of jagged rocks had stood out 
above the oravel slopes of the mountain, I could perceive 
nothing but a black and threatening cloud. here was 
nothing for us but to return. But this was not so easy, the 
stones which previously had seemed so solid, broke away 
every moment under our feet, bringing down others in their 
fall. 
Arriving at the spot where we had quitted the forest, we 
resolved to follow up the course of the river as well as possi- 
ble as far as the cataract just above our hut. In this we 
succeeded, and at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon we reached 
our bivonac, 
On the sixth day after leaving the plain, we at last got to 
the top. Itwas on my hands and feet that I climbed the last 
part, and the view that then met my eyes made me start back 
with surprise, what I had taken for the top was but the 
narrow rim of a yawning crater with precipitous sides. More 
