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the lava-streaked sides of the huge bare crater, and the thin little wisp of smoke that showed there was still life in the mountain.  Singgalang, on the other side of us, was simply boiling with clouds, stirred by the high wind, and emptying some of them in black fury on the land below.  Again we were lucky and no rain fell on us.

In the evening Bill noticed a sign in the hotel office informing the world that  Rafflesia was now in bloom, only fifteen kms. away, so we dedicated to-morrow to seeing the world's largest flower.

June 9 -

We had intended to start for home today, but the weather was bad all morning and we did want to stop on the way and see Rafflesia arnoldi.  After a trip to the Zoo and a visit to the market  we decided to stay over another day in Fort de Kock.

After lunch the sun came out, and we dashed off to Batang Paloehpoeh, the village near which the famous flower was blooming.  A big sign across the road said "Stop! Rafflesia!" and a notice beside the village store explained that the "Natuurmonument" was at its height.  We walked in through a Meningkabau village, past a rice field, and climbed a fairly steep hill.  Nothing could have been in a more inconvenient place for our ardent photographers.  After ascending the mountain part way through a dense thicket of second-grown, we came out in a little cleared place, and at the foot of the very slippery path was the Rafflesia.  One was afraid to go down the path near enough to see it for fear of sliding right into it boots first and ruining it completely..  Gingerly we crept down however, and had our first view of this remarkable plant.  It is a monstrous red fungus-like growth, lying flat on the ground, with no leaves and no visible stem.  The rust red surface is blotched with raised spots of orange.  Each petal is about a foot in diameter, and the calyx, like a huge bowl, has spikes on the inside for pistils and stamens.  The petals are about a quarter of an inch thick, and the diameter of the whole blossom is close to forty inches.  It lasts only two days, and then collapses into a circular pile of carrion-like decay.  Already carrion flies, deceived by the odor which we could not even detect, were laying their eggs on the petal.  It is like nothing on earth, and it is hard to believe that it is a natural phenomenon, and not the product of some giant's distorted fancy.

Lower down we saw two buds that had not yet opened, hard round objects about the size of croquet balls, and a brown ring of decay that marked the spot where Rafflesia bloomed last.  It is  curious to think that probably many of them are bloo ing in Sumatra's jungles to-night, and yet they are usually so inaccessible that only the fortunate few, who travel near some spot like this on the very day the flower opens, ever see one.

While Williams and the Brues were photographing it, with movies, color plates, flash bulbs, miniature cameras, and all the equipment they could think of, Bill and I did some collecting.  I found a curious spiny beetle, and Bill got some more horn flies.  Small boys collected, and were a great nuisance, turning over stones before we could get to them,  breaking up all the hollowtwigs that might have contained ant nests, and finally scaring away a fine column of Aenictus that Bill wanted - right near a bridge where he could have