About seven miles west of this is a volcano which was in eruption about
thirty years before my visit, presenting a magnificent appearance and
covering the surrounding country with showers of ashes. The plains
around the lake formed by the intermingling and decomposition of
volcanic products are of amazing fertility, and with a little management
in the rotation of crops might be kept in continual cultivation. Rice is
now grown on them for three or four years in succession, when they are
left fallow for the same period, after which rice or maize can be again
grown. Good rice produces thirty-fold, and coffee trees continue
bearing abundantly for ten or fifteen years, without any manure and with
scarcely any cultivation.
I was delayed a day by incessant rain, and then proceeded to Panghu,
which I reached just before the daily rain began at 11 A.M. After
leaving the summit level of the lake basin, the road is carried along
the slope of a fine forest ravine. The descent is a long one, so that I
estimated the village to be not more than 1,500 feet above the sea, yet
I found the morning temperature often 69 , the same as at Tondano at
least 600 or 700 feet higher. I was pleased with the appearance of the
place, which had a good deal of forest and wild country around it; and
found prepared for me a little house consisting only of a verandah and a
back room. This was only intended for visitors to rest in, or to pass a
night, but it suited me very well. I was so unfortunate, however, as
to lose both my hunters just at this time. One had been left at Tondano
with fever and diarrhoea, and the other was attacked at Langowan with
inflammation of the chest, and as his case looked rather bad I had
him sent back to Menado. The people here were all so busy with their
rice-harvest, which was important for them to finish owing to the early
rains, that I could get no one to shoot for me.
During the three weeks that I stayed at Panghu it rained nearly every
day, either in the afternoon only, or all day long; but there were
generally a few hours' sunshine in the morning, and I took advantage of
these to explore the roads and paths, the rocks and ravines, in search
of insects. These were not very abundant, yet I saw enough to convince
me that the locality was a good one, had I been there at the beginning
instead of at the end of the dry season. The natives brought me daily a
few insects obtained at the Sagueir palms, including some fine Cetonias
and stag-beetles. Two little boys were very expert with the blowpipe,
and brought me a good many small birds, which they shot with pellets
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