1868.] 427 [Marsh. 



" At each convulsion the sides of the mountain shook, smoke 

 and ashes, and fragments of broken lava flew up in all direc- 

 tions from the mouth of the crater. Some of the stones were 

 of immense size, and some Avere thrown to a vast height, some- 

 times disappearing in the air as a hawk does in soaring out of 

 sight. I timed some of the larger ones, and found they wore 

 ten seconds in descending. They must have been tlu'own up 

 at least a thousand feet. As Pemberton Smith had never seen 

 liquid lava, our guide undertook to show us some. 



" Following him through a dense cloud of smoke across a 

 valley of awful roughness, like cast-iron ploughed by giants 

 when it was wet, we reached a steep bank eight or ten feet 

 high, and, by peeping over this when the wind lulled and the 

 smoke rose, we could see just beyond it a huge stream of liquid 

 fire running down the mountain in a torrent. But we could 

 onl}' get a glimpse of it, for, in addition to the smoke, the heat 

 was terrific. I had no thermometer, but feel sure it could not 

 have been much less than about 180°. 



" In watching the stones thrown up from the crater, we saw 

 one descend quite near us, and our guide ran and brought it 

 to us while still hot. We each broke off a small piece and put 

 in our pockets, and afterwards found that they had burned 

 holes in the paper in which they were wrapped. 



" We descended nearly parallel to the flowing lava in an old 

 lava channel. It seemed like an inclined aqueduct, was half 

 round, and verj^ smoothly plastered at bottom, as though done 

 with mortar. 



" The flowing stream had not yet reached more than two- 

 thirds the distance down the cone, but was so chilled at its 

 lower end as to resemble tar or molasses in its progress. It 

 had a long semi-c^'lindrical front, perhaps ten or twelve feet 

 deep and some two hundred feet wide. 



" Seeing an open, sandy place a quarter of a mile below it, 

 well sheltered by banks of scoriae twelve or fifteen feet high, 

 we went there and seated ourselves, to rest and to watch the 

 movement of the lava, and the red-hot stones, which constantly 

 broke through the fi'ont and rolled down the side of the moun- 

 tain, occasionally reaching the upper end of the valle}' some 

 two or three hundred yards from us. 



" I alwa3^s did eujoj' the sight of stones rolling down hill, but, 

 to see them red-hot, and just at dusk, was magnificent. We 



