Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

JAVA. 159are closed, at both extremities, the water which accumulates during the wetmonsoon escaping through underground luirangit, or channels, seawards. TheGunong Sewn district is described by Junghuhn as the loveliest in Java, itsshady avenues, gently sloping hills, grassy dells and villages surrounded bygardens recalling the sjdvan beauties of more temperate lands.North-east of the Gunong Sewu and of a more elevated semicircle of othersedimentary hills, the Gunong Lawu rises in nearly isolated majesty to analtitude of 10,800 feet. The three domes of this volcano, which was formerlyvenerated by the worshippers of Siva, are not pierced by craters;but vapours stillescape from the deep crevasses on the south side.The Gunong Willis (8,500 feet),some 50 miles beyond Lawu in the same igneous range, no longer presents theform of a volcano. The supreme cone was probably blown away during someprehistoric explosion, and now nothing remains except a long, irregular, andcraterless eminence. Thermal sjDrings and solfataras, however, still attest theexistence of underground forces, both here and in the smaller Mount Pandan(3,000 feet), which stands out on the plains to the north of Willis.South of Surabaya and its fluvial delta, Java is occupied by a transverse systemof other volcanoes, of which the Gunong Kelut (5,750 feet), lying nearest ofWillis, is the most dreaded by the natives. Its crater, at least 650 feet deep, isflooded by a fresh-water tarn, whose contents were estimated by Junghuhn in1844 at 2,000 millions of cubic feet. During eruptions, when the igneous outletlies below the lake, the liquid mass is converted into steam, which rises in densevolumes emitting flashes of light and then falling on the slopes in tremendousdownpours of water mixed with the sands ejected by the volcano. Channels oftrachj-tic scoriae furrowing the flanks of the mountain from summit to base recallthe rush of these sudden torrents, which deluge the surrounding plains, sweepingaway the crops, uprooting forest trees, and razing the villages to the ground.In 1848 the regular detonation ofthe gases which changed the lake into clouds ofvapour, produced an uproar that was heard throughout nearly the whole ofIndonesia. The Macassar people in Celebes, 500 miles off and under the lee ofthe explosion, were terrified by what seemed like the roar of artillery, anddespatched vessels to scour the neighbouring seas.The other volcanoes of this system are extinct, or at least have retained but afeeble remnant of their former energy. The triple-crested Kawi, whose highestpeak, the Butak, attains an altitude of9,500 feet, has preserved no solfataras, andonly a solitary thermal spring; the mighty Arjuno (11,000 feet), where theSivaites formerly offered sacrifices, emits vapours only from one fissure, whilePenanggimgan (5,500 feet), last of the chain south of Surabaya, appears to becompletely quiescent. Nevertheless, in the main axis of the system, some 12miles from Surabaj'a, two mud volcanoes have made their appearance, which areabout 30 feet high, and which are usually active at the turn of the tide. Fromone are ejected fragments ofbricks, which must come from the Hindu structuresof the ancient city of Mojo-Pahit, which formerly stood much farther to thewest.