Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/172

154 The road continued to wind through a picturesque country, until we reached the flagstaff mountain, where the beauty of the slopes began sensibly to diminish. They were covered with the alang alang, a tall, yellow grass, and studded with tall trees, amongst which w*ere the chum-ara, a species of fir, and a bushy shrub called the kut-i-sang, which has a delicate little flower, with pink stamens, growing like the rhododendron, but more foliaceous. It affords excellent cover for peacocks and wild fowl, some of which started out on hearing the tramp of our small cavalcade.

A ride of an hour and a half brought us to the foot of the Mungal, where we dismounted, and walked to the top, from whence we had a bird's-eye view of the enormous extinct crater, said to be the largest in the world, being about four or five miles in diameter. Beneath us was the Dasar, or floor of the crater, which at first sight seemed only a short leap from where we stood. What was our