Art. VIII. Native Sulphur from Java.

Through the kindness of Mr. I. Huntington, recently returned from Java, we have received from that Island some fine specimens of native sulphur. They are very pure, of an orange yellow, slightly shaded with white, and occasionally with red; some of the cavities are lined with delicate crystals. What gives them particular interest is, that they are believed to be from that "large, and now nearly extinct, volcano, about sixty miles from the town of Batavia, at the bottom of which (of the crater) lie large quantities of native sulphur, even many hundred tons." It is in the crater of this volcano that the famous lake of sulphuric acid exists, and from which it flows down the mountain, and through the country below, a river of the same acid. (See Tilloch's Phil. Mag. Vol. XLII. p. 182.) It is a most curious phenomenon, and we believe entirely without a parallel. Another river, called the White River, unites with this some miles below its origin: this river, which is so called from the turbidness of its waters, its salutary to men and animals; fishes live in it, and vegetation is nourished by its waters; but after the junction it becomes clear; the acid dissolving the earthy particles which discoloured it, and it now becomes fatal to living beings: kills the fish, destroys the vegetation, and corrodes the stones in its channel. This remarkable river flows from Mount Idienne, in the province of Bagnia Vangni, in the eastern part of Java.