SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF GARDENS. 357 



wave to and fro, thoiigli where the beholder stands, 

 not the sEghtest breeze is movmg in the aii'. We 

 bad come at just the right time to Bee it when it 

 is moBt charming, for the early sun was then shoot- 

 ing oblique bands of bright light across the falling 

 water, and the stream is divided into millions of 

 drops the moment it curves over the edge of the 

 cliff, those pearly spheres were now lighted up and 

 now darkened, as repeatedly they shot out of the 

 shaded parts into the bands of golden light. 



Returning to Sonder, I proceeded along the main 

 route in the southeast dii'ection to Sender Tua, " Old 

 Sonder," and Ivawangtoan, and thence to the lovely 

 n^gri of Tompasso. During this distance, of about 

 eight miles, we had slowly f^cended until we were 

 about five hundred and seventy-five feet above Son- 

 den The view here is open on all aides. In the 

 southwest is Mount Tompasso, irhich attains an ele- 

 vation of over thirty-eight hundred feet. In the 

 southeast the high, steep mountains are seen that 

 border this elevated plain on the south. Great land- 

 slides appear on theii^ sides ; and the people at Tom- 

 passo said that, not long before, three natives, who 

 had cleared and planted large gardens on the steep 

 declivities, went one morning to continue their labor, 

 as usual, when to their great sui-prise their gardens 

 had disappeared, and all that was left of them was a 

 huge heap of sandstones and fragments of trees 

 piled up on the edge of the plain. 



This village is laid out with a large, square pond 

 in the middle, and on a broad dike which crosses it 

 is tlie highway. A well-graded street borders this 



