Here Was A Small Clearing,
With Abundance Of Tree-Ferns And Some Young Plantations Of
Cinchona.
As there was now a thick mist and drizzling rain, I did
not attempt to go on to the summit that evening, but made two
visits to it during my stay, as well as one to the active crater
of Gedeh.
This is a vast semicircular chasm, bounded by black
perpendicular walls of rock, and surrounded by miles of rugged
scoria-covered slopes. The crater itself is not very deep. It
exhibits patches of sulphur and variously-coloured volcanic
products, and emits from several vents continual streams of smoke
and vapour. The extinct cone of Pangerango was to me more
interesting. The summit is an irregular undulating plain with a
low bordering ridge, and one deep lateral chasm. Unfortunately,
there was perpetual mist and rain either above or below us all
the time I was on the mountain; so that I never once saw the
plain below, or had a glimpse of the magnificent view which in
fine weather is to be obtained from its summit. Notwithstanding
this drawback I enjoyed the excursion exceedingly, for it was the
first time I had been high enough on a mountain near the Equator
to watch the change from a tropical to a temperate flora. I will
now briefly sketch these changes as I observed them in Java.
On ascending the mountain, we first meet with temperate forms of
herbaceous plants, so low as 3,000 feet, where strawberries and
violets begin to grow, but the former are tasteless, and the
latter have very small and pale flowers.
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