190 INSECT LIFE xm 



before the hearth. A bottle caught the melted 

 water. This would be our fountain for the evening 

 meal. The night was spent on a bed of beech 

 leaves, well crushed by our predecessors, and they 

 were many. Who knows for how many years the 

 mattress had never been renewed ? Now it was a 

 hard-beaten mass. The mission of those who could 

 not sleep was to keep up the fire. Hands were not 

 wanting to stir it, for the smoke, with no other exit 

 than a large hole made by the partial falling in of 

 the roof, filled the hut with an atmosphere made to 

 smoke herrings. To get a mouthful of breathable 

 air one must seek it with one's nose nearly level 

 with the ground. There was coughing ; there was 

 strong language, and stirring of the fire ; but vain 

 was every attempt to sleep. By 2 a.m. we were all 

 on foot to climb the highest cone and behold the 

 sunrise. The rain was over, the sky splendid, augur- 

 ing a radiant day. 



During the ascent some of us felt a kind of sea- 

 sickness, caused partly by fatigue and partly by the 

 rarefaction of the air. The barometer sank 140 

 millimetres ; the air we breathed had lost one- 

 fifth of its density, and was consequently one-fifth 

 poorer in oxygen. By those in good condition this 

 slight modification would pass unnoticed, but, added 

 to the fatigue of the previous day and to want of 

 sleep, it increased our discomfort. We mounted 

 slowly, our legs aching, our breathing difficult. Every 

 twenty steps or so one had to halt. At last the 

 summit was gained. We took refuge in the rustic 

 chapel of St. Croix to take breath and counteract 

 the biting cold by a pull at the gourd, which this 



