410 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 



clianged into a deep raviae, and tlie road continued 

 to ascend along one of its steep sides, and Ijecame so 

 narrow tliat I was afraid my liorse would lose his 

 footing in the soft clay, and that we should both go 

 down to certain destmction on the rocks that raised 

 their ragged jaws above the spray of the foaming 

 torrent below. A dark forest of primeval, gigantic 

 trees covered the sides of the mountains above us, 

 and crossing a rickety bridge we fomid many of theii* 

 huge trunks lying across our patli. Tliey had lived 

 to theii' allotted age and had not fallen by the hand 

 of man. This road has been lately made, and ab'eady 

 great fissures in its outer edge show that it is quite 

 ready to slide down the mountain. 



Large troops of monkeys have established them- 

 selves in this dark gorge, and just when I was in the 

 most dangerous place they made a fiightfal noise^ 

 some trumpeting, some screeching, and some making 

 a prolonged shi'ill whistling, yet I coidd only see one 

 or two, though the natives who were building the 

 road assured me that the tops of the trees were full 

 of them. While in this deep ravine I crossed the 

 equator for the third time since I entered the archi* 

 pelago. 



I had now climbed up one thousand four hundred 

 feet during my short ride, and was therefore two 

 thousand one hundred feet above the sea. To the 

 northwest there now opened out before me a long, 

 narrow, gently descending valley, like the one I had 

 left behind ; m fact, this water-shed is xiierely a trans- 

 verse ridge which unites the Barizan chain with the 

 chain parallel to it, in the same way as it is done by 



