place I shall tell later. I must now go to bed, as we start at 5 A.M.
on an expedition to see an active crater.

[Sidenote: A crater.]

_February 12th.--Six P.M._--We started nearly as early as was
proposed. Two hours of carriage work along a road made heavy by rain,
and about two hours more of riding up a steep mountain side, covered
with tall trees sinking under a load of creepers and orchideous
plants, not so wild and bold as the mountain scenery of Jamaica, but
with somewhat of the same character. We ascended about 4,300 feet from
our starting-point, so that when we reached our goal we were 6,500
feet above the sea. Our goal was a covered shed overlooking a crater,
not in a very active state, but puffing sulphurous smoke from numerous
chinks and chasms. Beyond this first crater was a second very similar
to it; and beyond both, far below, the plain of Bantong, where we now
are, lay green and smiling. We could not see a great extent of it, for
the heavy clouds were already mustering for the rain which at this
season falls always in the afternoon. (It is now pouring, with thunder
and lightning.) But the scene was very striking, and the clouds added
to the mystery. We returned through a quinine plantation, which is an
experiment, and promises to be a successful one, and then through a
coffee plantation, different, and much prettier to look at than those
of Ceylon and Jamaica, for here the bushes are allowed to grow to
their full height (about twenty feet), and have a graceful pyramid-
like shape; whereas there they are all pruned down to about five feet
in height. There are also here some large trees left to give shade to
the coffee bushes. I can conceive nothing more lovely than these
plantations must be at the time of flowering. We got back to our hotel
at 2 P.M., since when I have had breakfast, hath, and reading, and am
now preparing for dinner.

[Sidenote: A second _soiree_.]

_Ten P.M._--Another Javanese _soiree_. No ladies this time. To begin
with: two kinds of marionettes; the first behind a kind of crape
screen,--strange figures cut very beautifully out of buffalo hide, and
jumping about to a very noisy vocal and instrumental accompaniment.
The second, something like Italian marionettes, worked by a man's
fingers, but without any attempt to conceal the operator. Both sets, I