56 Mr Charles Stewart's Account of the 



stonch, and lava, were propelled, with equal force and noise^ 

 from its ragged and yawning mouth. The whole formed so sin^ 

 gular and terrific an object, that, though my drawing book had 

 been accidentally left with my boy, who was unwilling to de- 

 scend from the ledge with us, in order to secure a hasty sketch 

 of it, I permitted the other gentlemen to go a few yards nearer 

 than I did, while I occupied myself with my pencil on a rough 

 piece of blotting paper, brought by one of the party to wrap 

 round the more delicate specimens we might collect. Lord 

 Byron and his servant ascended the cone several feet, but found 

 the heat too great to remain longer than to detach with their 

 sticks a piece or two of recent lava burning hot. 



So highly was our admiration excited by the scene, that we 

 forgot the danger to which we might be exposed, should any 

 change take place in the currents of destructive vapours, which 

 exist in a greater or less degree in every part of the crater, till 

 Mr Davis, after two or three ineffectual intimations of the pro- 

 priety of an immediate departure, warned us, in a most decided 

 tone, not only as a private friend, but as a professional gentle- 

 man, of the peril of our situation, — assuring us that the inspira- 

 tion of the air, by which we might be surrounded, would prove 

 fatal to every one of us. We felt the truth of the assertion, 

 and, notwithstanding the desire we had of visiting a similar 

 cone covered with a beautiful incrustation of sulphur, at the 

 distance of a few hundred yards only from where we then were, 

 we hastily took the speediest course 'from so dangerous a spot. 

 The ascent to the ledge was not less difficult than the descent 

 had been, and for the last few yards was almost perpendicular ; 

 but we all succeeded in gaining its top in safety, not far from 

 the path where we had in the morning descended the upper 

 cliff. 



We reached the hut about two o'clock, nearly exhausted with 

 fatigue, thirst, and hunger, and had immediate reason to con- 

 gratulate ourselves on a most narrow escape from suffering and 

 extreme danger, if not from death. On turning round, we 

 perceived the whole chasm to be filling with thick sulphurous 

 smoke, and within half an hour, it was so completely choked 

 with it, that not an object below us was visible. Even in the 



