BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S., &C 707 



about, a league in circumference. From the midst of this there 

 always rises an immense column of whitish fumes. The edge of 

 the crater is easily reached, and one looks down an appalling 

 depth. At the bottom is a small pond about 70 yards wide, from 

 which the fumes are exhaled. The waters are a dark green, and 

 encrusted all round with deposits of sulphur, soda, lime and mag- 

 nesia. The interior is rugged but firm, and forms almost a natural 

 staircase down to the water which can be reached with a little 

 careful climbing. It is the most accessible crater iii the world, 

 and offers hundreds of sights to the traveller. The interior surface 

 is seen to be composed of lava, cinders, fine sand, pumice and 

 great quantities of sulphur and crystalline salts of soda, magnesia 

 and lime. When seen from the edge they have a yellowish colour, 

 and every now and then they are thrown into violent ebullition, 

 accompanied by a roaring noise. From the bubbles caused by this 

 spasmodic boiling, dense white fumes emerge, and these form the 

 column of vapour which is seen from afar rising from the crater." 

 If this description was taken from actual observation, which I am 

 inclined to question, though it occurs in the "Boletin delaComision 

 del Mapa Geologica del 'Espana, Vol. Ill," the change which 

 has taken place in the crater since 1872 is very great. No mention 

 is made of the two small smoking craters, and there is only one 

 lake spoken of instead of three which I saw. The description of 

 Sefior Centeno comes nearer to the state in which I saw it first, 

 but still there are differences. At the early part of his visit 

 descent into the crater seemed so difiicult that it was only under- 

 taken with many precautions in the way of ropes and other aids. 

 He describes, first of all, the reddish yellow lake which occupied 

 all the north-east part of the crater. Its margins were covered 

 for fifty or a hundred yards with abundant concretions of various 

 colours, yellow, red and white. These consisted of sulphur, oxide 

 of iron, alum and gypsum. The sulphur was crystalline or 

 encrusting ; the iron oxides formed a film more or less thick 

 arising from the decomposition of the scorije. Alum and gypsum 

 were present in large handsome crystals. The gypsum was in thin 

 tabular crystals disposed vertically and horizontally upon one 



