54 TRAVELS m TEE EAST LVDUN AECUIPELAGO. 



many birds, and even snakes^ wlio had lost tbeir lives 

 in this fatal place. Besides carbonic acid gas, snlphni- 

 ous acid gas also escapes. This was the only gas pres- 

 ent at the time of Dr. Junghulin's visit, and is prob- 

 ably the one that causes snch certain destruction to 

 all the animals that wander into this valley of death. 

 The soft paits of these animals, as the skio, the mus- 

 cles, aud the haii^ or feathers, were found by l>otii ol>- 

 servers quite entire, while the bones had crumbled 

 and mostly disappeareti The reason that so many 

 dead animals are found on this spot, while none exist 

 in the surrounding forests, is because beasts of prey 

 not only cannot consume them, but even they lose 

 their lives in the midst of these poisonous gases. 



It was in such a place that the deadly upas was 

 fabled to be found. The fii'st account of this wonder- 

 ful tree was given by Mr. N. P. Foei*sch, a sm-geon 

 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. 

 His original article was published in the fomtb vol- 

 ume of Pennant's " Outlines of the Globe," and re- 

 peated in the Lmidm Mcufazine for September, 1785. 

 He states that he saw it himself, and describes it as 

 " the sole individual of its species, standing alone, in 

 a scene of solitary horror, on the middle of a naked, 

 blasted plain, smTounded by a circle of mountains, 

 the whole area of which is covered with the skele- 

 tons of birds, beasts, and men, Not a \^estige of vege- 

 table life is to be seen within the contaminated atmos- 

 phere, and even the fishes die in the water ! " This, 

 like most fables, has some foundation in fact ; and a 

 large forest-tree exists in Java, the Antimm kmcaria 

 of botanists^ that has a poisonous sap. When its 



