"THE VALLEY OFTHE SHADOW OF DEATH."

Te Aroha News, Issue 6, 14 July 1883, Page 3

"THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH."

A valley surpassing in reality of horror the fabled reigion of the upastree was found in the island of Java. This is a volcanic and in one spot the emanations from the interior of the eaith are so deadly that the place is called the Valley, of Death. As the travellers approaches it he is attacked by Dausea and guldinesß. He also notices a suffocating smell. As he advances these . "Bymptotus disappear, so that, after passing through the belt of fetid air which guards the valley, the visitor is able to examine with less risk the Rpectacle before him. A recent traveller describes the valley as j being an oval, about one mile in circumference, and fiom 30ft to 40ft below the level of the- surrounding land. The floor of the valley is flat, dry, without any; vegetation ; and scattered all over it are the skeletons of men, tigers wild boars, birds 'and stags lying aniong large blocks of stone. No steam or smoke is to be seen, nor is any crevice apparent in the earth, which appears to be as hard as rock. The hills which hem in this valley of Deioltttiun are clothed from base to sum-

mitwith healthy tree and bushes. Tht traveller whom we already quoted descended the side of one hill, with the aid of a bamboo stick, to about eighteen feet from the bottom, and he compelled * dog to go down the plain. In five seconds tha animal fell on its side motionless, although it continued to breathe for eighteen minutes. Another dog died in ten minutes and a fowl only resisted the deadly air for a minute and a half, and was dead before it reached the bottom. It is believed that the human skeletons are those of malefactors who have sought refuge here, ignorant of the fatal influence of the air they came to breathe. The neighboring mountains are volcanic, but they neither emit suphurous odors, nor do they present any indications of recent eruptions.