Show JAVAS WONDROUS ISLAND OF FIRE The greatest natural wonder hi Java if not in the entire world is the justly celebrated Gheko Kamdka Gumko or Home of the Hot Devils known to tue world as the Island of Fire This geological singularity says an article quoted in Current Literature is really a lake of boiling mud situated at about the centre of the plains of Grobogoaia and is called an island because the great emerald sea of vegetation which surrounds it gives it that appearance The Island Is about two miles in circumference cir-cumference and is situated at a distance dis-tance of almost exactly fifty miles from Solo Near the centre of this geological geologi-cal freak immense columns of soft hot mud may be seen continually rising and falling lke great timbers thrust through the boiling substratum by giant gi-ant hands and then again quickly with drawoi Besides the phenomenon of the boiling mud column there are scores of gigantic bubbles of hot slime that fill up like huge balloons anti keep up a series of constant explosions tihe intensity of the detonation varying with tine size of the bubble In timss past so the Javanese authorities say there was a tall spirelike column of baked mud on the west edge of the lake which constantly belched a pure stream of cold water but this has 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 |