34 
GUNONG KARANG. 
horse-shoe, and, like the ravines, its narrowest is its lowest part. 
The sides are nearly perpendicular to the apparent depth of three 
hundred feet. Their upper part, to within one hundred feet of 
their base, is clothed with a thick foliage, but below, quite bare. 
The bottom of the crater is formed, as I afterwards ascertained, of 
masses of crystallized sulphur, and of sulphur mixed with fine white 
volcanic ash. At its narrowest part, which bore south from the point 
where I stood, I could distinctly trace ridges, looking, at a distance, 
like furrows. 'Smoke was issuing from it in many places, which, 
rising upwards, surrounded us with a sulphureous atmosphere. Clouds 
frequently rolled from the bottom to the top of the crater, and were 
in perpetual oscillation, sometimes filling its whole area, and hiding 
every object ; then receding and leaving every part visible. The 
ground shook beneath us, and appeared to be composed of little 
else than the roots of trees and the decay of vegetation. The interval 
separating the ravine on the right and the crater on the left, was not 
more than two feet in width ; but the thickness of the wood, whilst 
it afforded firm handhold, prevented us from observing much danger 
in our situation. I had no barometer with me, and therefore could 
not accurately measure the elevation of the highest part of the verge 
of the crater. Fahrenheit’s thermometer stood at 68° at 11 A. M., 
when in the plains, it was at 84°. and Leslie’s hygrometer* was less 
than zero. Water boiled at 206°. 
During our whole ascent we had been surrounded by interesting 
plants. The ferns and mosses were especially beautiful. Of the former 
the smaller tribes were in the greatest variety ; and the tree ferns 
were occasionally so abundant that they formed perfect woods occupy- 
ing a considerable space of ground, to the exclusion of other plants. 
Of mosses I collected a great number ; some of them of a size unusual 
to their order. In a cave formed in the bare rock, before described, 
I found the Polytrichum undulatum, in all respects resembling the 
* Of the use and defects in the structure of this instrument, I shall have occasion to 
speak in another part of this work. 
