Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/179

Rh probable than that they should regard the sounds issuing from its profound depths as the shrieks, yells, and groans of a multitude of discontented spirits, calling in misery to be delivered from the prison-house in which they were suffering unutterable torments? The crater of the volcano is like a large basin, about three hundred and fifty feet in diameter, sloping gradually to a depth of fully two hundred feet. The ridge is very irregular, which accounts for the broken appearance it presented to our eyes when seen from the plain. The part we stood upon was almost a level surface, about three feet wide. The interior is rugged, and crusted over with deposits of sulphureous matter. The floor is formed of three steps, thickly coated with yellow. From a large aperture in the centre issued dense volumes of smoke, completely hiding everything beyond from view, and so thick as effectually to conceal the opposite side of the crater. Enormous cakes of a red substance, like baked mud, VOL. I.