Page:Life in Java Volume 2.djvu/271

 PERPENDICULAE DESCENT. 255

opposite side another crater, called the Kawa Ratu, which is seen to better advantan;e hv descending into the interior. The way, which at a first glance seems easy enough, we found before going many steps to be cpiite the reverse. The descent is almost ])eri)endicular: and there beinix no reo-ular ])ath, you are obliged to pick your way amongst loose stones, and hard cakes of clay, which in some places were very slippery. When we had descended about half-wa}', we came to an escarpment, from which we looked down on the active ])ortiou of the volcano, whence issued sounds like the moaninc of the wind on a stormy niglit. These sounds the super- stitious natives believe to })e the groaning of certain giants cliaiiied underground by a wicked gnome.

Venturing to descend still lower, we had a more listinct view of the chimneys or a])ertures in the Kawa Ivatu; some of which oidy ])resent the ap- pearance of extinct craters in miniature, while from others the smoke forces itself in dense volumes,

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