is a well-built road along the eastern side of the lake
to the kampong of Sinkara on the southern shore. The
lake is ten miles long and about three miles wide. It
is parallel to the Barizan chain in this- place, and extends
in a northwest and southeast direction. Its
surface is about seventeen hundred feet above
the sea. Its most remarkable character is its great
depth at one place, near the cleft of Paningahan,
where the plummet runs down eleven hundred
and eighty-two feet, nearly a quarter of a mile, so
that its bottom, at that spot, is only about five hundred
feet above the level of the sea. West of the
Sinkara is the great Barizan chain, with its acclivities
rising immediately from the margin of the lake, and
its peaks generally attaining an elevation of fifteen
hundred feet above the lake, or three thousand two
hundred feet above the sea. On the eastern side, and
on the northern end of the lake, are hills of less than
half that height, mostly composed of syenite. The
Barizan chain, as shown in the cleft of Paningahan,
is composed of chloritic schists interstratified with
marble, and overlaid in most places with lava, pumice
stone, and volcanic sand or ashes. These strata
of schists and limestone undoubtedly rest on gigantic
rocks, for such are found outcropping on the opposite
or coast side of the range. The basin of Lake
Sinkara, therefore, occurs where a great fault has
taken place. Five miles east of the lake, and a short
distance south of the kampong Pasilian,* is Mount
Sibumbun, which, as well as the cleft; of Paningahan,
has been carefully examined by Mr. Van Dijk, of
the Government Mining Corps, on account of the
copper-mines they contain. Sibumbun is a peak of
greenstone rising out of syenite. Westward, one
passes from the granite into marble, and then on to
a sandstone of a late formation, which contains layers
of coal that is probably of the same age as that I saw
at Siboga.
The whole geological history of this part of Sumatra
may be summed up as follows : On the syenite
and granite, layers of mud and coral were deposited,
then the whole was raised and plicated; and after
this period was deposited the sandstone, the strata of
which we have already noted as being unconformable
to the rocks on which they rest, and more nearly horizontal.
If, as Mr. Van Dijk thinks, and is very probable,
the marble in the cleft of Padang Pangjang is
formed from corals, at least not older than the eocene
age, it follows that the mountain-ranges of Sumatra
have been formed within a comparatively recent period.
The process of covering these strata by lava,
pumice-stone, and volcanic sand and ashes, has been
going on since historic time.
The most remarkable thing in this kampong of
Sinkara, is the M i, or town-hall. Either end, on
the inside, is built up into a series of successive platforms,
one rising over the other. On the outside these
elevated ends resemble the stern of the old three and
four decked frigates which the Dutch generally used
when they first became masters of these seas, and such
as can yet be seen used as hulks in the ports of the British
colonies. The exterior of the bali, as well as the
better private houses, are painted red, and ornamented
with flowers and scroll-work in white and black.