328 TRAVEI^ IN THE EAST INDLiX ARCHIPELAGO. 



tiine^ to vaiy the scenery, we passed througli the nar- 

 rows^ and encamped on a charniing little beach on 

 the island side of the strait, between two high, pre- 

 cipitous crags. Our first care was, of course, to con- 

 struct a tent, a work soon finished by our large crew. 

 At 11 A. M. we all felt a heavy eaithquake-shock, 

 which lasted, apparently, thirty seconds ; but these 

 are frequent phenomena in this part of Celebes. On 

 the 25 th of last month, not four weeks ago, there was 

 a very heavy earthquake over the whole Minahassa, 

 At Kema we could still see gi'eat rents in the ground, 

 three or four inches vnde, which could be traced for 

 several rods. Tlie shock was so severe that nearly 

 every article of glass or earthen-wai'e in the contro- 

 Imi'^B house was broken into fragments. Indeed, as 

 I look up now toward the west, I do not wonder 

 the eai'th heaves beneath us like a troubled sea ; for 

 there rises the old volcano known in olden times 

 as Mount Tonkoko. It has a great yawning crater, 

 six hundred feet deep, out of which are rising thick, 

 white clouds of gas. On the northwest side a deep 

 ravine cuts thi'ough its flanks, and opens out into the 

 crater. Farther down this same side is the new cone^ 

 beneath which we pitched our camp last night. In 

 1806 a great eruption began in this old volcano, and 

 ashes, sand, and pumice-stone were thrown out in gi'eat 

 quantities. At Ayar-madidi the ashes were fine and 

 of a gray color, and covered the ground with a layer 

 an inch thick. For two days the heavens were 

 darkened by the great quantity of these light mate- 

 rials floating in the air. So many stones were ejected, 

 that at a distance of nearly three miles a new cone 



