48 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



thin and fibrous cmnnli covered the other lofty peaks, 

 but a tbict cloud wrapped itself around tbe crest of 

 tbis mountain and many small ones gatbered on its 

 dark sides, wbicb occasionally could be seen tbi'ougb 

 tbe partings in its wbite fleecy sbroud- Tbe fonn 

 of tbe wbole waa just tbat of tbe mountain, except at 

 its top, where for a time tbe clouds rose like a gigan- 

 tic, circulai' castle, tbe square openings in tbeir dense 

 ma&s exactly resembling tbe windows in sucb tbick 

 walls. 



Eastward of Ungarung are seen tbe lofty summits 

 of Merbabu and Merapi, and east from tbe ancborage 

 rises Mount Japara, forming, with tbe low lands at 

 its feet, almost an island, on Java's north coast. 



Like Batavia, Samarang is situated on both sides 

 of a small nver, in a low morass. Tbe river was 

 much swollen bv late raios, and in the short tiuie I 

 passed along it, I saw dead borses, cats, dogs, and 

 monkeys borne on its muddy waters out to the bay, 

 there perhaps to sink and be covered "vvitb layers of 

 mud, and, if after long ages those strata should be 

 elevated abore the level of tbe sea and fall under 

 a geologist's eye, to become tbe subject of some prolix 

 disquisition. This is, in fact, exactly tbe way that most 

 of the land animals in tbe maiine deposits of former 

 times have come down to us — an ex^tremely frag- 

 mentaiy liietoiy at best, yet sufficient to give us some 

 idea of the strange denizens of the eai-th when few or 

 none of the higbest mountains had yet been fonned* 



Through this low morass tbey are now digging a 

 canal out to tbe roads, so tbat the city may be ap- 

 proached from the anchorage by the canal and tbe 



