THE LAKE OF TONTDANO. 



pounding out rice by water-power. The axle of the 

 water-wheel is made very long, and filled with a 

 number of small sticks, which, as they turn over, 

 raise poles fixed in a pei-pendicular position, that fall 

 again when the revohdng stick is di*awn away from 

 them, A large boat, manned by seven natives, was 

 made ready for me to go to any paiij of the lake 

 of Tondano and ascertain its depth. It occupies the 

 lower portion of a high plateau, and its surface, as 

 measured by 8. H. De Lange, is two thousand two 

 hundred and seventy-two English feet above the sea. 

 It ia about seventeen miles long in a northerly and 

 southerly direction, and varies in width from two to 

 seven miles. It is nearly divided into two equal 

 parts by high capes that project from either shore. 

 On the south and southwest and on the north, its 

 shores are low, and the land slowly ascends from one 

 to five miles, and then curves upward to the jagged 

 mountain-crest that bounds the horizon on all sides. 

 In the other parts of its shores it rises up from the 

 water in steep acclivities. All the lowlands and the 

 lower flanks of the mountains are under a high state 

 of cultivation, and the air is cool and pure, while it 

 is excessively hot and sultry on the ocean-shore below. 

 Some writers have regarded this lake-basin as an old 

 extinct crater ; and some, as only a depression m 

 the surrounding plain, or, in other words, the lower 

 part of the plateaiL To settle this question beyond 

 a doubt, it was necessary to ascertain its form. I 

 therefore asked the Resident if he could furnish me 

 with a line to sound with as I crossed it. He re- 

 plied that he had but one of two hundred fathoms, 



