LUNCH IN A LAVA CAVE. 761 



its upper end, they struck across to the head 

 of the ravine. It terminated in a ridge, which 

 looked down upon an immense field or sea of 

 hardened lava, spreading over an area of sev- 

 eral miles till it reached the ocean. This 

 ancient bed of lava was full of the most sin- 

 gular and fantastic details of lava structure. 

 It was a field of charred ruins, among which 

 were more or less open caves or galleries, 

 some large enough to hold a number of per- 

 sons standing upright, others hardly allowing 

 room to creep through on hands and knees. 

 Rounded domes were common, sometimes bro- 

 ken, sometimes whole ; now and then some 

 great lava bubble was pierced with a window 

 blasted out of the side, through which one 

 could look down to the floor of a deep, un- 

 derground hollow. 



The whole company, some six or eight per- 

 sons, lunched in one of the caves, resting on 

 the seats formed by the ledges of lava along 

 its sides. It had an entrance at either end, 

 was some forty feet long, at least ten feet 

 high in the centre, and perhaps six or eight 

 feet wide. Probably never before had it 

 served as a banqueting hall. Such a hollow 

 tunnel or arch had been formed wherever the 

 interior of a large mass of lava, once cooled, 



