W'alls of the Crater. i-] S 



appointed to assist in the scientific operations, proceeded in 

 two boats to the shore, for the purpose of making some pre- 

 liminary observations. When we reached the bar there opened 

 to our view, covered with luxurious grass growing in tufts, the 

 walls of a majestic crater, the exquisite regularity of the 

 cavity of which left the exact impression of an enormous 

 natural amphitheatre. 



'ii^'^>?d^; 



On either side the ground rises nearly perpendicularly to 

 a height of about 800 feet, which probably is likewise the 

 average height of the walls of the crater. On the north side 

 of the basin, a kind of terrace was seen low down, with huts 

 thatched with straw, while on the shingle of the bar was 

 planted a not very perpendicular flagstaff, on which, in honour 

 of the arrival of a ship of war, old Viot had run up the French 

 ensign. As the Novara!s boat swept into the crater-basin, 

 he saluted with the proverbial courtesy of his nation, which not 

 even the rough occupation of a whale-fisher had been able 

 to rub out of him. Viot had last come hither in the preceding 



2 T 



