xvii.] ASCENT OF ASAMAYAMA. 601 



performed his devotions here. One of them had ah-eady at a 

 stone cairn situated farther down with great seriousness made 

 some conjurations with reference to my promise to make an extra 

 distribution of red -wine, if we got good weather at the top. 



As on Vesuvius, we can also on Asamayama distinguish a 

 large exterior crater, originating from some old eruption, but 

 now almost completely filled up by a new volcanic cone, at 

 whose top the present crater opens. This crater has a cir- 

 cumference of about two kilometres ; the old crater, or what 

 the old geologists called the elevation-crater, has been much 

 larger. The volcano is still active. For it constantly throws 

 out " smoke," consisting of watery vapour, sulphurous acid, and 

 probably also carbonic acid. Occasionally a perceptible smell 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen is observed. It is possible without 

 difficulty to crawl to the edge of the crater and glance down 

 into its interior. It is very deep. The walls are perpendicular 

 and at the bottom of the abyss there are to be seen several 

 clefts from which vapours arise. In the same way " smoke " 

 forces its way at some places at the edge of the crater through 

 small imperceptible cracks in the mountain. Both on the 

 border of the crater, on its sides and its bottom there is to be 

 seen a yellow efflorescence, which at the places which I got at 

 to examine it consisted of sulphur. The edge of the crater is 

 solid rock, a little-weathered augiteandesite differing very much in 

 its nature at different places. The same or similar rocks also pro- 

 ject at several places at the old border of the crater, but the 

 whole surface of the volcanic cone besides consists of small loose 

 pieces of lava, without any trace of vegetation. Only at one 

 place the brim of the old crater is covered with an open pine 

 wood. The volcano has also small side craters, from which 

 gases escape. The same coarse fantasy, which still prevails in 

 the form of the hell-doofma amono; several of the world's most 

 cultured peoples, has placed the home of those of the followers 

 of Buddha who are doomed to eternal punishment in the 

 glowing hearths in the interior of the mountain, to which these 

 crater-openings lead ; and that the heresies of the well-meaning 

 Bishop Lindblom have not become generally prevalent in Japan 

 is shown among other things by this, that many of these open- 

 ings are said to be entrances to the " children's hell." Neither 

 at the main crater nor at any of the side craters can any true 

 lava streams be seen. Evidently the only things thrown out 

 from them have been gases, volcanic ashes, and lapilli. On the 

 other hand, extensive eruptions of lava have taken place a1> 

 several points on the side of the mountain, though these places 

 are now covered with volcanic ashes. 



After having eaten our breakfast in a cleft so close to the 

 smoking crater that the empty bottles could be thrown directly 



