Sulphur 3Iasses. — Hot Sprm(/s or Geysers. 25 1 



lustrous crystals of sulphur. This sulphur, which is exhib- 

 ited here piled up in immense masses like small hills, is 

 the same as that which occasionally entices the Javanese 

 into these appalling- abysses. The most powerful solfatara, 

 which lies exactly in the middle ridge, and like a geyser 

 throws up to a height apparently of one or two feet a column 

 of boiling water, consisting in part of sulphur, is for that 

 reason unapproachable by man. 



" From the Poison Crater w^e climbed over into the 

 King's Crater. The hard masses of rubbish throw^n out during 

 the last eruj^tion afforded firm footing here, until we got 

 near the sputtering solfataras, when the hot yielding mud 

 made further progress impracticable. 



'' The visit to these two craters, which change features 

 from year to year, furnished much material for observation. 

 It was long past noon when w^e retraced our steps upwards 

 along the precipitous path by which we had descended. 

 Ere long we found ourselves once more on the smnmit, pro- 

 tected from the sun's vertical rays by the grateful shelter of 

 the hut w^hich Jimghulm had erected here, and from which 

 we could take in at one glance, in all its vast proportions, the 

 entire abyss, with its two smoking craters in all their horrid 

 sublimity. The oval of the exterior rim measui'es not less 

 than 6000 feet in length by 3000 in breadth, and from the 

 upper wall the descent sheer into the abyss is not less than 

 800 feet perpendicular. 



" This was the last crater which we had an opportunity 



