THE GUNONG API IN SAPI STRAIT. 



107 



before ub. Its high top, five thousand eight hundi-ed 

 feet above the level of the sea, was hidden by hori- 

 zontal clouds, strati, which parted while we were ob- 

 serving the mountain, and let down a band of bright 

 sunlight over its dark sides. It is not a single but a 

 double peak— the one to the northwest appearing from 

 the deep valleys and ravines in its sides to be the 

 older. On the eastern flanks of this peak, near the 

 shore, there appears to be an old crater, whose outer 

 w all has been washed away by the sea. For one-third 

 of the distance from the shore to the top of this peak 

 there is some shrubbery in the bottoms of the deep 

 ravines; but the remaining two-thirds aie quite 

 bare. At its top, this mountain ends in a email 

 truncated cone. The southwestern peak seems to 

 have recently formed^ for, from its top down to the 

 shore, on the southeast side, there is one continuous 

 sheet of fine volcanic materials, scored only by nar- 

 row grooves with perpendicular sides. When \^ewed 

 in profile, the unbroken sweep of its sides, from its 

 summit to the sea, was most majestic. It was so reg- 

 nlai-, that it was difficult to believe it had not been 

 shaped by the hand of man. By this time we were 

 in the midst of the strait between Sumbawa and 

 Commodo, and soon we passed on the left hand Gil- 

 libanta, whose highest point is only twelve hundred 

 feet above the sea. Its name in Javanese means the 

 " one that disputes the way." It is merely the rem- 

 nant of an old crater, whose northwestern wall has 

 disappeared beneath the sea. The southerly dip of 

 the successive overflows of lava was plainly to be 

 seen. 



