e panorama spread out like a model beneath our feet which
arrested attention and impressed one most. We stood on the edge of an
enormous crater--the Teng'ger--with a circumference of fifteen miles.
Where, in prehistoric times, flames and ashes and lava had boiled and
belched, there was now a sea of yellow sand, out of which stood other
three volcano peaks--the Battok, the Bromo, and the Widodaren--showing
purple in the morning light. The Battok is a perfect cone, the
lava-covered sides standing out in clearly defined ridges like the
buttresses of a Gothic structure. The Bromo is the only one of the three
now active. As we gaze down, we are startled by a deep groaning noise,
and out of the wide crater mouth there issues a mass of grey smoke and
ashes laden and streaked with fire. Simultaneously, a huge mass of
cloud, cruciform in shape, is shot up hundreds of feet into the air from
the Semeroe. It rests a few seconds above the bare, ash-strewn cone, and
then drifts heavily to westward, to make way for the next eruption.

[Illustration: SAND SEA, WITH BROMO AND SEMEROE.]

These indications of Nature's activity in the crucible at the earth's
centre make one reflect on the possible consequences of the next great
convulsion, and the fate that is in store for those intrepid villagers
who have perched their primitive huts on the very edge of the Teng'ger
crater. With these reflections, we turn away from one of the most solemn
and impressive sights it has been our privilege to witness, silently
mount our pony and retrace our steps for the snugly-situated Hotel at
Tosari, no longer regretting, nay, rather thankful, that we had resolved
and achieved our resolution to climb the Penandjaan Pass to see the sun
rise.

[Illustration: SMOKE PLUME--THE SMEROE.]

Hotels and Travelling Facilities

Before going to Java, the tourist ought to make himself acquainted with
the outlines of the history of the island since it came under European
domination. Half the charm of European travel, if one is something more
than a mere unreflective globetrotter, lies in the historic associations
of the places visited, and it is the comparative absence of this quality
which robs new countries of the interests they would otherwise possess
for educated people. Scenery alone surfeits the appetite.

In Java, as in most Oriental countries, the traveller feels that he is
moving in an atmosphere of antiquity, and though it has become a
misnomer to