34-0 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



up the mountain-side, so steep it seemed impossible to 

 ascend it. There was no vegetation now to obstruct 

 the view. All about us the plain and steep acclivity 

 was covered with a matted carpet of coarse grass. 

 Immediately above us towered an immense rock, so 

 delicately poised and so far-jutting, that it appeared 

 ready to fall. Undoubtedly, the next earthquake will 

 dislodge and hurl it below, to join its fellows that 

 thickly stud the plain beneath. For an hour and a 

 half, with many stops for breath, we mounted up- 

 ward, and made a final pause beneath the rock to 

 gather strength to meet the tempest of wind that 

 howled above. Here my taciturn guide pointed out 

 a narrow ledge where a man died of exhaustion, and 

 was found at midnight by my informant, who was 

 sent in search of him, on his knees, with his face 

 covered with his hands. 



Imagine an immense pyramid, truncated by some 

 internal force that has rent the sides at the same time, 

 leaving the summit-plane strewn with huge rocks, and 

 reft in twain by a mighty chasm, and you have the 

 Soufriere of Guadeloupe at the present day. We fol- 

 lowed a narrow path over sounding rocks that told of 

 caverns beneath, and entered, through a great portal 

 formed by two adjacent rocks, upon a plateau cov- 

 ered with a carpet of sphagnum and lycopodium, 

 spangled with pink blossoms, wild hemp, and yellow, 

 trumpet-shaped flowers. Narrow trails crossed and 

 recrossed this little track, like rivers on a map. It 

 was now eleven o'clock, and we stopped to lunch at 

 the portal, — for, since my coffee, Iliad not tasted 

 food that day, — then pursued our way across the 

 plateau. We reached a dark chasm, made as though 



