A GLANCE AT MIN AH ASS A. 
841 
here ami there. It is the crater llano Assem. It is all a congeries 
of rallies, or basin formed hollows, probably formed in the manner of 
tunnels in proportion as the volcanic action has consumed and heav¬ 
ed up the ground under the surface of the earth. We find here no 
signs of living things, except wild cows, whose traces are so abun¬ 
dant that at one place we lost the direction of the proper path. 
Shuddering we approached this Chaos of desolation. At some 
distance from the margin of the crater we began to creep that so 
doing or lying, we might in safety receive the full impression of all 
the terrible but also grotesque characteristics of this work of nature. 
A noise struck our ears much resembling that of the opening of the 
Valve of the pipe in a steamboat, and which can be heard at a great 
distance. It was the sulphur pool at the bottom of the crater* 
At first the sulphureous vapour hindered us from distinguishing 
objects, but after half an hour, the vapour was driven off by the wind, 
and the whole basin lay exposed before us. The first impression was 
fearful. A boiling sulphur pool of about 500 feet in diameter is 
enclosed by steep rocky walls, from which the sulphur apparently 
comes, and which, some perpendicular like columns others like ar¬ 
ches, threaten to fall with you in a moment below, while the sides 
(a kind of stone burnt and changed into lime) at the slightest un¬ 
wary touch crumble away. 
We endeavoured to cast stones into the middle of the crater. For 
this purpose we fastened a tolerably heavy stone to the end of a rope 
of about 110 fathoms long, and threw it forward but the rope ran 
out to 100 fathoms without the stone reaching the pool. 
We saw no living beings save some swallows which wheeled above 
the pool. We also observed traces of wild cows which had descend¬ 
ed into the crater; what they seek there is a mystery, for neither in 
the crater nor in the vicinity is a single blade of grass to be found* 
We passed the night on the top of this mountain, which according 
to Professor Reinwardt is 4744 R. feet and according to Mr. 
Forsten 5126 Fr. feet in height. The cold was piercing, for the 
plain being quite open the wind and mist passed over it unimpeded. 
At sunrise the thermometer stood at 60° F. The atmosphere was 
now clear, and we saw the negorys Kawankoan, Tompasso, L&ngu&n 
and Kapas in miniature, with' the lake of Tondano lying before them. 
All the hot springs and boiling mud pools which we had visited were 
in our eye, now so many steam pipes, while we saw over the moun¬ 
tain Pompelempungan the Islands and the sea on the south coast in 
