A Valley of Death.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 49, 22 January 1883, Page 2

A Valley of Death.

A valley surpassing m reality of horrors the fabled region of the upas tree has been discovered m the Island of Java, This island is volcanic, and m one spot the emanations from the i interior of the earth are so deadly that the place is called the Yatiey of Death As the traveller approaches it he is attacked by nausea and giddiness. He also noticed a suffocating gmell. As he advances these symptoms disappear, so that, after passing through the belt of fetid air which guards the Taller, the visitor is able to examine with less risk the spectacle before him. A recent traveller describes the valley as being an oval, about one mile m eircum* ference, and from 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 among blocks of etone. No steam or smoke is to be seen,, uor m any crevice apparent m the earth, which appears to he as hard as rock. The hiJls which hem m this Valley of Desolation are clothed from base to summit with healthy trees and bushes. The traveller whom we have already quoted descended the side of one hill, with the aid of a bamboo stick, to abont 18ft from the bottom, and he compelled a dog to go down to the plain. In five seconds the animal fell on its side motionless although it continued to breathe for eighteen minutes. Another dog died 3in tea minutes ; and a fowl" only resisted the deadly air for a minute and a-half, and waß dead before he reached the bottom. It is believed that the human skeletons arej those of male malefactors who have soughs refuge here, ignorant of the fatal influence of the air they came to breathe. The neighboring mountains are volcanic, butneither emit sulphurous odors nor do they present any indioa* tions of recent eruption.