CEESCENf-SHAPED ROOFS. 



393 



pcm/r^ or market, and, where they have been erected 

 by the natives, they are the most remarkable build- 

 ings I have &e«ii in the archipelago. They are perched 

 upon posts like the houses. The ridge-pole, instead 

 of being horizontal, eurves up so high at each end, 

 that the roof comes to have the form of a crescent 

 with the horns pointing upward. Sometimes a shoii;er 

 roof is placed in the middle of the longer, and then 

 the two look like a small crescent within a large one. 

 Long before Europeans came to this land these peo- 

 ple, were accustomed to meet to barter their products, 

 and this was their only kiud of internal commerce. The 

 next morning I rode part way down the cleft to near 

 the place where the post-horses are changed, and found 

 a marble that was soft, but so crystalline as to contain 

 no fossils. I understand, however, that Mr. Van 

 Dijk, one of the government mining engineers, dis- 

 covered some pieces of this limestone which had not 

 been crystallized, and that he considered the species 

 of*corals seen in them to be entirely of the recent 

 period. Limestone again appears in the cleft of 

 Paningahan, a short distance to the south. The rocks 

 with which it is interstratified are chloritic schists, 

 that is, layers of clay changed into hard schists by 

 the action of heat and pressui*e. 



FehrmTy 23r/. — The inspector arrived this morning, 

 and we set out together for Fort de Kock, about twelve 

 miles distant. From Padang Panjang the road con- 

 tinues to rise to the crest of a ridge or col^ which 

 crossed our road in an easterly and westerly direction, 

 and connects Mount Singalang with Mount Merapi. 

 This acclivity is veiy nicely terraced, and the water is 



