Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

SUMATEAN HIGHLANDS. 85chasm visited by Veth and Van Hasselt, aud by them described as developing avast circumference and several hundred yards deep.Like the Padaug volcanoes, this majestic mountain has also its little lacustrinesystem in the vallej-s excavated at its base. Here rises a torrent, which afterskirting the east slope of the volcanic chain falls into the danau or "sea" ofKorintji, whence an emissary escapes towards the river Jambi. Farther southfollow other volcanoes disposed in a line with the general axis of the island, butfor the most part extinct. Kaba and Dempo, however, are still the theatre offrequent and violent convulsions. Kaba (5,500 feet), which is visible thirtymiles to the north-east of Benkulen, towering above the Suikerbrood (" Sugarloaf"),terminates in two craters, one inaccessible, and both rent by crevasses, whenceissue jets of vapour. In 1875 Kaba entered on a period of activity, the eruptionslasting three years, and covering the surrounding hills and valleys with sand mixedwith chemical substances fatal to plants and animals alike.Even now, wheneverthe sandy banks of the neighbouring streams give way the fish die in thousands.Dempo (10,560 feet), which rises some sixty miles to the south-east ofBenkulen, is also the scene of constant disturbances. But Sawah, one of the oldcraters, no longer bursts into flames, so that the natives are able to ajiproachwithout danger and offer their sacrifices in the midst of tlie heaths and rhododendrons.The new crater, named Merapi like the great Padang volcano, stands 8-iOfeet higher up, and is the abode of the deta for whom the offerings are intended.Some sixty feet below the circular rim is seen a lakelet sparkling like a sheet ofquicksilver ;presently a black speck in the centre of the glittering surface beginsto expand and assume the form of a funnel, in which the water suddenly disappears.In a few minutes the rocks resound as with the rumbling of thunder ;the din grows nearer, followed by a flash as of lightning, and the water, transformedto vapour, issues in a dense jet from the crater, into which it again soonsubsides.Thus every fifteen or twenty minutes the lake vanishes and reappearsin the form of a magnificent geyser some hundred feet high.Farther south another ranau* or " sea," floods an elevated cirque (1,720 feet),which seems to have been an old crater, and which is encircled on three sides byextinct volcanoes. It is extremely deep in the centre, and in one place thermal.springs from the neighbouring Mount Siminung raise the temperature too highfor animal life.Southwards the Barisan system again bifurcates, one branch continuing in thenormal direction south-eastwards to Cape Tjina (China), where it merges in lowhills over against Princes Island and the south-west extremity of Java. Theother or volcanic branch trends more to the east, where it is indicated from afarby the lofty summits of Mounts Besagi, Sekinjau, Tebah, and Tangkamus (7,520feet). This last, better known as the Keizers Piek, or "Emperor's Peak," risesnear the southern extremity of Sumatra, on the Bay of Samangka, and is probablyconnected by a submarine fault with the islet of Tabuan. On the mainland the vol-water.* RanaUy danati^ tao are various dialectic forms of the same word, meaning sea, or any large expanse of