56 NAPA EI MA. 



the cone as far as we could dig. From each oozes perpetually, 

 with a clicking noise of gas-bubbles, water and mud ; and 

 now and then, losing their temper, they spirt out their dirt 

 to a considerable height ; a feat which we did not see per- 

 formed, but wliich is so common that we were in some- 

 thing like fear and trembling, while we opened a cone with 

 our cutlasses. For though we could hardly have been made 

 dirtier than we were, an explosion in our faces of mud with 

 " a faint bituminous smell," and impregnated with " common 

 salt, a notable proportion of iodine, and a trace of carbonate 

 of soda and carbonate of lime,"^ would have been both 

 unpleasant and humiliating. But the most puzzling thing 

 about the place is, that out of the nmd comes up not 

 jumbies, but a multitude of small stones, like no stones 

 in the neighbourhood ; we fonnd concretions of iron sand, 

 and scales which seemed to have peeled off them; and 

 pebbles, quartzose, or jasper, or like in aj^pearance to flint ; 

 but all evidently long rolled on a sea-beach. Messrs. Wall 

 and Sawkins mention pyrites and gypsum as being found : 

 but we saw none, as far as I recollect. All these must 

 have been carried up from a considerable depth by the 

 force of the same gases which make the little mud 

 volcanos. 



Xow and then this " Salse," so quiet when we saw it, is 



^ Dr. Davy (West Indies, art. Trinidad). 



