a ship with three masts, usually navigated in the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean.

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1 In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal (vol. xi. p. 102) we find the following account of a visit to the Valley of Death, extracted from a journal of a tour through the islands of Java and Madara, by Mr A. Lossom, in the year 1830.

"Bali, 3d July, 1830.—This evening, while walking round the village with the Patchi (native chief), he told me that there was a valley only three miles from Bali, that no person could approach without forfeiting their lives, and that the skeletons of human beings, and all sorts of beasts and birds, covered the bottom of the valley. I mentioned this to the commandant, Mr Van Spreewerberg, and proposed that we should go to see it. Mr Daendels, the assistant-resident, agreed to go with us. At this time I did not believe all that the Javanese chief told me. I knew there was a lake close to this, and that it was dangerous to approach too near, but I had never heard of the Valley of Death.

"Bali, 4th July.—Early this morning we made an excursion to the extraordinary valley called by the natives Gano Upas, or Poisoned Valley; it is three miles from Bali, on the road to the Djenz. Mr Daendels had ordered a footprint to be made from the main road to the valley. We took with us two dogs and some fowls, to try experiments in this poisonous hollow. On arriving at the foot of the mountain, we dismounted and scrambled up the side, about a quarter of a mile, holding on by the branches of trees; and we were a good deal fatigued before we got up the path, being very steep and slippery from the fall of rain during the night. When within a few yards of the valley, we experienced a strong, nauseous, suffocating smell; but on coming close to its edge, this disagreeable smell left us. We were now all lost in astonishment at the awful scene before us. The valley appeared to be about half a mile in circumference, oval, and the depth from thirty to thirty-five feet; the bottom quite flat; no vegetation; some very large (in appearance) river-stones; and the whole covered with the skeletons of human beings, tigers, pigs, deer, peacocks, and all sorts of birds. We could not perceive any appearance of any opening in the ground, which first appeared to us to be of a hard sandy substance. It was now proposed by one of the party to enter the valley; but at the spot where we would have entered, at least for me, as one false step would have brought us to eternity, there was no opening which could be got through. We lighted our cigars, and with the assistance of a lamp, we went down within eighteen feet of the bottom. Here we did not experience any difficulty in breathing, but an offensive, nauseous smell annoyed us. We now fastened a dog to the end of a bamboo, eighteen feet long, and sent him in; we had our watches in our hands, and in fourteen seconds he fell on his back, did not move his limbs or look round, but continued to breathe eighteen minutes. We then sent in another, or rather he got loose from the bamboo, and walked in to where the other dog was lying; he then stood quite still, and in ten seconds he fell on his face, and never afterwards moved his limbs; he continued to breathe for seven minutes. We now tried a fowl, which died in a minute and a half. We threw in another, which died before touching the ground. During these experiments we experienced a heavy shower of rain; but we were so interested by the awful scene before us, that we did not care for getting wet. On the opposite side, near a large stone, was the skeleton of a human being, who must have perished on his back, with the right arm under his head. From being exposed to the weather, the bones were bleached as white as ivory. I was anxious to procure this skeleton, but any attempt to get at it would have been madness. After remaining two days in this Valley of Death we returned, but found some difficulty in getting out. The human skeletons are supposed to be those of rebels who had been pursued from the main road, and taken refuge in the different valleys; as a wanderer cannot know his danger till he is in the valley, and, when once there, he has not the power or the presence of mind to return."

Mr Loudon conceives that there is a great difference between this valley and the Grotto del Cane, near Naples. In the Grotto the air is confined to a small aperture, whilst in the valley the circumference is fully half a mile, and not the least smell of sulphur, nor any appearance of an eruption having taken place near it, although the whole chain of mountains is volcanic, and there are two craters which constantly emit smoke, at no great distance from the side of the road at the foot of the Djenz. It thus appears that the story told by Foersch is an entire fabrication, and that the notion of a poison-tree is a pure romance; but, like most fictions, it has a thread of truth interwoven in its texture, some of the circumstances agreeing with those above stated, but at the same time proving that Foersch had never visited the Valley of Death.