206 



A NATUMAIIST'S WANDEHINQS 



CHAPTER VL 



SOJOURN IN THE POLEMBAKO RESIDENCY— C0»fwit/€f?. 



PaBstimiih Lau(!3 fcewi/d)— The Volcano of tbe Dempcn^Tts flom and fauna — 

 The crater^ [)t>ct fe of the Braeken— Thfi view from the sunmiit— Leavo 

 for the Kaba Volcano — Gunung Memksn— Hiver journey or a raft — 

 Lam fiftr^ Find iigain the spider OrmVwsmfoides dccq»ms--Bat.a- 

 TOUtjeh— A marriage ecene— Gam^ of the hoys — Houses— Tebbing- 

 TiDggi—TandjoLg-ning— Great trees— My party attacked by a tiger- 

 Its w i H ness— Its capt u re — Graveyard , 



TffK chief object of interest in tlie Passumah Lauds is its 

 volcano — the Dempo. Almost daily I explored sonie part of 

 its vast extent, and when I left I could Lave profitably spent 

 mouths more ivitliout exhausting its treasures. The viJlage of 

 Pan, in which I had my quarters, was 3500 feet above the sea. 

 The iirst few hundred feet of the flanks of the mountain were 

 appropriated by the villagers for their coffee gardens, and the 

 few fields in which they now cultivate rice and roots. The 

 coffee-trees, despite their being densely crowded, yielded large 

 crops of a very aui)erior kind of fruit ; above these cultivated 

 flelds ran a broad belt of low forest consisting of a shrubbery of 

 Fluggea mteroearpa and the usual broad-leaved seitamineous 

 plants, in whose damp shade balsams and white-flowered Ges' 

 n^acesL* and hairy-leaved Begoriim flourished. About 4000 feet 

 began the virgin forest, which for 2000 feet upwards displayed 

 unrivaUed luxuriance, under which grew a tangled mass of 

 shrubs and thorny climbers. Crashing through these, I one 

 day nearly trainided on a fine new species of that curious 

 family, the Eafflesimem; it smelt powerfully of putrid flesh, 

 and was infested with a crowd of flies, which followed me all 

 the way as I carried it home, and was besides overrun with 

 ants, notwithstanding the long haii-s which protected its centre. 

 In the deep shade at this elevation few flowers except from 

 the climbers and epii)hytes on the trees, such as many species 

 of Melastonia oftener mure rich in colour of fruit than of flower, 



