Java's Natural Wonder

The greatest na. ral wonder in Java, if not in the entire world, is the justly oelebrated "Gheko Kamdka Gumko," or "Home of the Hot Devile," known to the world as the "Island of Fire," aays an exchange. This geoglogical singularity is really a lake of boiling mud, situated at about the center of the plains of Grobogana, and it is called an Islanil because the great emerald sea of regetation which surrounds it gives it that appearance. The "island" is about two miles in circumference and is cituated at a distance of almost exactly Bfty mfles from Solo. Near the center of this geological freak immense columns oL soft, hot mud may be seen continually rising and falling Iike great timbers thrust through the boiling substratum by giant hands :nd ! then again quickly withdrawn. Bei sides the phenomenon of the boiling mud columns there are scores of gigantic bubbles of hot elime that Qll wp Iike huge balloons and keep up a series of constant explosions varying with the size of the bubble. In times past, so the Javanese authorities say, there was a tall, spire-like column of baked mud on the west edge of the Iake, which constantly belched a pure stream of cold water, but this hae long been obliterated and everything is now a seething mass of bubbling mud and slime- a marvel to the visitors, who come from great distances to see it.