THE BEOMO — MARVELLOUS VIEW. 
67 
View was superb. He was standing on the spur of the 
mountain under some venerable cassuarina trees ; on each 
side were deep ravines beautifully wooded, but the grand 
view of all was in the direction from which we had come. 
Away down, some thousand feet, was the village we had 
left with its variegated cod-roy looking gardens ; beyond, 
the forest clad hiiis and dark ravines extended down, down, 
till the eye reached the plain below, and beyond again, the 
whole of the eastern part of the island was spread out like a 
map ; we could see both the north and south coasts and could 
almost look into the crater of the Lamongan. It was, indeed, 
a glorious sight ! Soon after, we approached the bare sunimit 
of the highest point we had to ascend ; even the cassuarina 
trees did not grow here, nothing but a short kind of grass ; 
iust before arriving at the summit I left the path and rode 
up to the top of a rounded hill to see what there was beyond, 
A most extraordinary sight met my view ; I looked down on 
the Bromo and the sandy sea a thousand feet below me. 
When I first beheld it, the so-called sea was covered with a 
beautiful gauxe of clouds which gradually cleared away 
disclosing the broad expanse of sand. The steep wall of 
rock by which it is surrounded is covered with cassuarina 
trees, the beautiful green mountains in the centre, contrasting 
strongly with the one scorched and bare corner which forms 
the present crater of the Bromo, and presenting the most 
beautiful and at the same time most extraordinary scene I had 
ever beheld. I stood upon nearly the highest part of the 
outer wall, as it may ,be called, and in front of me was a 
desert of sand, many miles in extent. 
At the furthest right hand corner of the mass of moun- 
tains is the volcano of the Bromo, bleak and scorched, 
RAFFLES LIB^^ARY 
