EVERY HILL A VOLCANO. 



181 



Chinese, for tliey rarely or never cany back the bones 

 of their friends to the sacred soil of the Celestial Land 

 from these islands as they do from California. Such 

 graves are alvrays horseshoe-shapedj just as in China, 

 and their white walls make veiy conspicuous objects 

 on the green hill-sides. Above the open areas, in the 

 wooded regions, we notice a few places filled with 

 small trees that have a peculiai' bright-green foliage. 

 Those are the gardens of clove-trees which have made 

 this island so famous throughout the world. 



It is now the rainy season here, and thick rain- 

 clouds at first completely enshrouded us ; but as we 

 passed up the bay they slowly broke away, and re- 

 vealed on either hand high hills and mountains, 

 which, on the Hitu side, began to assume a most 

 wonderful appearance. The strong easterly wind 

 pushed away the thick, white clouds from the ex- 

 posed sides of all these elevations, and caused them 

 to trail off to the west like smoke from hundreds of 

 railroad engines, untU every separate peak appeared 

 to have become an active volcano that was continu- 

 ally pouring out dense volumes of white, opaque gas ; 

 and as these hills rose tier above tier to high, dark 

 mountains which formed the background, the whole 

 scene was most awe-inspiring, especially in this land 

 where emptions and earthquakes are frequent, and 

 only a comparatively thin crust separates one from 

 the earth's internal fires, 



l^ear the mouth of the bay the water is very deep, 

 but eight or nine mOes within it is sufficiently shal- 

 low for an anchorage. Here also the hills on the 

 east or Laitimur side are separated from the beach by 



