moments during which the clouds lifted and gave us a brief yet comprehensive glimpse of the wondrous natural beauty of the surrounding landscape.
Pangerango, 9326 Paris, or 9940 English, feet in height, is the loftiest of the extinct volcanic cones of Java, rising on the eastern slope of an enormous crater-gulf, likewise extinct. Close in the vicinity, not above a mile distant to the S.E., and communicating with it by the ridge of Pasce Alang, 7000 (Paris) feet in height, rises another volcanic peak, Gunung Gedeh, of almost precisely identical height (9323 Paris, or 9937 English, feet). Its summit has fallen in, and from amid the débris on the floor of this ruined crater rises a second cone far less in height, but in full activity, with a deep crater, which is the true fiery gorge of the still active Gedeh. Towards 7 A.M. the clouds dispersed for a considerable space, when directly opposite us we saw the beautifully regular cone of Gedeh, with its perpendicular precipitous crater-wall, some 600 or 700 feet high. So near, indeed, did it appear to the eye that we could almost fancy it possible to throw a stone from the one summit to the other, so that it should fall exactly into the crater, from amid whose rents and cavities thick volumes of smoke were bursting forth at several points.
By 10 A.M. our caravan was once more under weigh on our return to Tjipannas. The geologist of the Expedition, however, accompanied by Dr. Vrij and one of the government employés, set off upon a rather dangerous adventure, viz.
the ascent of the Gedeh. Of this interesting excursion, Dr. Hochstetter gives the following interesting details:—
"A short distance before reaching the station of Kandung Badak, the path leaves the road by which we had come thus far. Here we had to clamber upwards as best we might, by a narrow path densely overgrown, and evidently but rarely traversed, till presently we emerged from the forest upon a tract of loose stone and scoriæ, which, sparsely covered with low bushes and grass, forms the upper portion of the peak of Gedeh. A strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen greeted us here, issuing from a Solfatara, which nestled under the true crater in a deep savage cleft of rock. Hot sulphureous and watery vapours were emitted from among the dark crannies of the rock, the upper edges of which were coloured yellow with pure sulphur: with much difficulty we still pressed on, and finally reached the edge of the ruined crater. What a contrast presented itself here in the view before us and the landscape behind!
"Behind we could see from base to summit clear and unbroken the beautiful luxuriantly-green well-wooded peak of Pangerango, on whose highest point stood out near and distinct the trigonometrical pole, or land-mark, while from the forest was heard an occasional musket-shot, sure sign that the company of travellers from the ship were on their way down. On the other hand, when we cast our eyes forward we saw but dismal desolate groups of grey rock, around the lofty amphitheatre-shaped rock wall of the
broken-down lip of a crater, regularly constructed of pillar-like masses of trachyte, each sundered from the column immediately adjoining, beneath which was the smoking cone of the active region of the crater, a bare heap of stone and scoriæ, of the utmost variety of colour. Stretching from the vast abyss of the crater-ruins, on whose bald slope is situated the cone of the new eruption, there is visible at intervals on either side, far down, until indeed it is lost in the dark gloom of the forest, a bare rocky ravine, full of stones and débris, which the active vent of the crater has from time to time vomited forth. We had on the previous day passed the lower extremity of this stream while riding to Pangerango.
"But we were not yet at the goal of our wanderings. We still had to climb from this point, and afterwards to scramble up to the summit of the active cone. This, however, proved to be much more easy than we had thought when looking at it from below, and we arrived without any disaster at the summit.
"Here then we were standing upon the edge of a yawning crater, in full activity! Not a single step forward was it possible for us to make. In front of us lay a funnel-shaped slope, 250 feet in depth, the floor of which was covered with mud, in which stood frequent pools of boiling water of a yellow tinge. The Javanese who accompanied us stated that they had never before seen it so quiet, the crater having
always been quite full of steam and vapour. On the present occasion the steam only escaped in small volumes through a few fissures in the sides of the inverted cone, and more particularly from the cracks and crevices on the exterior of the cone of scoriæ. We could perceive only water, steam, mud, and sharp-cornered fragments of rock, the débris and rubbish formed by the disintegration of the rocky masses thrown up by the crater, but not a trace, not a vestige, of any molten stream of lava, heaped up by the present crater of Gedeh. The whole history of the activity of this volcano may be compared to the explosions of a vapour cauldron in the interior of the earth, which has been heated by the masses of old trachytic lava currents in an incandescent state, but not yet thoroughly cooled, whose eruptions formed the principal means of erecting the volcanic cone. Repeatedly up to our own times has the mountain thrown up water, mud, and stones, together with fine powdered sand and volcanic ashes, which have travelled as far as Batavia, as also masses of melted stone cemented by liquefied sand, while marvellous volumes of flame were visible to an immense distance; but at no period within the memory of man has the Gedeh poured forth the hot liquid lava, or thrown up into the air melted volcanic matter. We must regard it as in its last stage, as about to become extinct, like all the other volcanoes of Java. It is the last reaction of the internal fires against the atmosphere penetrating from without. Even the most active volcanoes of Java, such as Gunung Guntur and Gunung