The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XVII.] CELEBES. 193came. Mo.st of the inhabitants had not been to bed at all, andsome had stayed out of doors all night. For the next two daysand nights shocks still continued at short intervals, and severaltimes a day for a week, showing that there was some very extensivedisturbance beneath our portion of the earth's crust. Hov^vast the forces at work really are can only be propei-ly appreciatedwhen, after feeling their etfects, we look abroad over the wideexpanse of hill and valley, plain and mountain, and thus realizein a slight degree the immense mass of matter heaved and shaken,The sensation produced by an earthquake is never to be forgotten.We feel ourselves in the grasp of a power to which thewildest fury of the winds and waves are as nothing ;yet theeffect is more a thrill of awe than the terror which the moreboisterous war of the elements loroduces. There is a mysteryand an uncertainty as to the amount of danger we incur, whichgives greater play to the imagination, and to the influences ofhope and fear. These remarks apply only to a moderate earthquake.A severe one is the most destructive and the mosthorrible catastrophe to which human beings can be ex^Dosed.A few days after the earthquake I took a walk to Tondano, alarge village of about 7,000 inhabitants, situated at the lowerend of the lake of the same name. I dined with the Controlleur,Ml'. Bensneider, who had been my guide to Tomohdn. He hada fine large house, in which he often I'eceived visitors ; and hisgarden was the best for flowers which I had seen in the tropics,although there was no great variety. It was he who introducedthe rose hedges which give such a charming appearance to thevillages ; and to him is chiefly due the general neatness andgood order that everywhei'e prevail. I consulted him about afresh locality, as I found Ruriikan too much in the clouds,dreadfully damp and gloomy, and ^vith a general stagnation ofbird and insect life. He recommended me a village somedistance beyond the lake, near which was a large forest, wherehe thought I should find plenty of birds. As he was goinghimself in a few days I decided to accompany him.After dinner I asked him for a guide to the celebrated waterfallon the outlet stream of the lake. It is situated about amile and a half below the village, where a slight rising groundcloses in the basin, and evidently once formed the shore of thelake. Here the river enters a gorge, very narrow and tortuous,along which it rushes furiously for a short distance and thenplunges into a great chasm, forming the head of a large valley.Just above the fall the channel is not more than ten feet ^vide,and here a few planks are thrown across, whence, half hid byluxuriant vegetation, the mad waters may be seen rushingbeneath, and a few feet farther plunge into the abyss. Botlisight and sound are grand and impressive. It was here that,four years before my visit, a former Governor of the Moluccascommitted suicide, by leaping into the torrent. This at least isthe general opinion, as hesuftered from a painful disease whicho