327 



country called the ' Pays brule' commences. From the 

 ' Rempart de Tremblet' we had a full view of it, stretching 

 across to the ' Rempart de Bois Blanc,' and up to the dome 

 of the volcano. The complexion of this dreary expanse is 

 as varied as the periods at which the eruptions took place 

 which covered it with lava. In many parts, the lava still 

 retains the vitreous appearance it had acquired by fusion. 

 In others, the surface is sprinkled over with a small shrubby 

 Lichen, which gives it a hoary appearance ; and in the fissures 

 and crevices a variety of Ferns spring up, intermixed with 

 shrubby plants, among which I remarked the Ruhus rosce- 

 foliuSi Andromeda salicifolia, SccBVola Kcenigii, Pemphis 

 acidida, and Pandanus Vacqua, the two last close to the 

 shore, and literally washed by the spray. A few spots that 

 had escaped the later eruptions are clothed with trees, and 

 appear like Oases in the desert. 



" The lava that has undergone complete fusion is as black 

 as jet, extremely porous, and holds numerous crystals of 

 olivine enveloped in its substance. The laj^er is, in many 

 parts, not more than a few inches in thickness; and its 

 surface is distorted into a variety of fantastic shapes, mimick- 

 ing coils of rope, the convolutions of intestines, or the 

 sinuosities of the brain. It appears as if the lava, while in 

 a semifluid state, had been puffed up by the rarified moisture 

 of the ground over which it had spread ; and that the more 

 liquid, or centi'al part, had receded to the circumference, and 

 raised the still yielding crust into these irregular contortions. 

 A person runs some risk in walking over this sort of lava, 

 on account of its fragility, and the numerous cavities 

 undez'neath it, into which he is liable to sink as he would 

 through ice. 



" From the appearance of this sheet-lava, as it may be 

 termed, it is hardly possible that it could have been dis- 

 charged from the summit of the mountain, or from any 

 considerable height on its side. It could not preserve its 

 fluidity in passing over such an extent of surface; besides 

 that we find it spread like a carpet over large tracts of 

 absolutely level ground, where its progress must have been 



