1867.] 329 [Bickraore. 



The next day we travelled five miles to a pass in the mountain 

 range that stretches along the northern shoreofTsugar Strait. From 

 this high point we enjoyed a fine view over the way we had come, 

 while to the northward appeared before us a beautiful lake, shut in 

 by high mountains, and beyond rose the volcano Konianartaki, its 

 naked sides speaking of the continual activity of the fires that gave it 

 birth. Descending to the lake, we followed its shore for five miles 

 farther, when the heavy clouds that had been settling down on the 

 mountain tops, began to pour down in showers the loads of moisture 

 they had brought up from the warmer air of the ocean. The houses 

 how began to be more scattering, and all along the lake we passed 

 but three. In one, by a large brook abounding in fish, we found com- 

 fortable quarters, and the following day we set off fur the toji of the 

 volcano to take advantage of the clear sky given us by a western wind. 

 Our guide took us a ri (two and a half miles) farther along the road, 

 then the same distance through a wood of oak, maple and birch, to 

 the foot of a long naked bank of sand and small rounded bc^ulders of 

 jiumice stone. The distance thence to the top was a ri farther. 



As we ascended, the boulders became smaller and smaller, and for 

 the last half of the distance we had to plod on in loose sand, the 

 largest })ieces of pumice stone being washed the farther, because when 

 this rook disintegrates into sand it occupies much less space, or in other 

 words, is heavier, than before. In fact, the whole mountain is merely 

 one immense heap of sand of a light red or salmon color. Twelve years 

 ago it had an eruption, and ashes and sand were thrown to Hakodadi. 

 Its present form shows that at some recent period, and probably at that 

 time, the whole mountain was split through from top to bottom in a 

 north-westerly and south-easterly direction, which, it is worth notic- 

 ing, is just the trend of the coast. If its previous form was that 

 of a cone, as is probable from what remains and the materials of which 

 it is composed, nearly the whole upper third must have since disap- 

 peared. The highest point that now remains is 4,188 feet in height, 

 according to the best charts. The present form of the crater is that 

 of an ellipse with a major axis of a quarter of a mile, directed north- 

 east and south-west, but the whole wall on the east side has disap- 

 peared, and there is merely a continuous descending jjlain from near 

 the centre of the crater to the sea shore five miles away. 



On coming to the edge of the crater wall, we found within a low, 

 dome-shaped mass of sand, with a deep fissure through it, in the direc- 

 tion in which the mountain must have been rifted asunder. In long 

 seams over the dome and at different spots on its surface, great jets of 

 steam and sulphuric acid gas were pouring out, accompanied with a 

 heavy bubbling or rumbhng noise. My guide refused to go down 



