238 



CELEBES. 



[cnAi*. XVI. 



VG<,'etation attains its highest development, and in such 

 districts each kind uf Huwer sekioiu la^ts iu peifoctinu 

 mom thiui a lew weeks, or sometimes a few days. Iji 

 every locality a k-ngtliened residence will show an abnii- 

 ilance of irnxgiiificcnt and gaily-blossomed plants, but they 

 liiive to be sought lor, and are i-^arely at nay one time <ir 

 place so abundant as to form a perceptible featare iu the 

 landscape. Uut it has been the custom o£ travellers it» 

 describe and group together sill the line plants they have 

 met with dniing a long journey, and thus prodnce the 

 elfet't of a gay and Hower-painted landscape. They have 

 rarely studied and described individual scenes where vege- 

 tation was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated 

 what efiect wns produced in them by flowers. I have 

 done so frerpieutiy, and the result of these examinations 

 has convinced me, that the bright colours of flowera 

 have a much greater influence on the general aspect of 

 nature in temperate than in tropical climates. During 

 twelve years spent amid the grandest tropical vegetation, 

 1 have seen notlung conijmrabie to the ellect produced on 

 our landscapes by gorse, broom, heather, wild hyacinths, 

 hawthorn, purple orchises, aiid buttercups. 



The geoloi^ical structure of this part of Celebes is 

 interesting. The limestone mouidains, though of great 

 extent, seem to be entirely supei-ficial, refsting on a basis 

 of basalt which in some places forms low nnuided bills 

 between the more precipitous mountains. In the rocky beds 

 of the streams biisalL is almost always found, and it is a 

 step in this rock wliieh forms the cascade abeady described. 

 From it the limestone precipices rise abruptly ; and in as- 

 cending the little stairway along the side of the fall, you 

 step two or three times from the one rock on to the othe!', 

 ' — the limestone dry and .rough, being worn by the water 

 and rains into sharp ridges and honeycombed holes, — the 

 basalt moist, even, and worn smooth ami slippeiy by the 

 passage of bare-footed pedestrians. The solubility of the 

 limestone by rain-water is well seen in the Httle blocks 

 and peaks which rise tliickly through the soil of the 

 alluvial plains as you approach the mountains. Tliey are 

 all skittle-shaped, lar;,^er in the middle than at the base, 

 the greatest diameter occnrring at the height to which the 



