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VOLCANOES OF THE SOUTH SEAS 17 
TWO ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE SOUTH SEAS 
E were camped at the base of the voleano Savaii of the Samoan 
Islands and had climbed from our camp to the summit over 
the broken lava fields to see the fire of the volcano at night. 
Standing upon the extreme edge of the crater and looking down, the 
immense lake of lava four hundred feet below glowed almost as a continu- 
ous incandescent mass. Its light was reflected upon the clouds above, 
making a beacon that we had often seen from a distance of forty miles and 
which was said to have been visible at a distance of seventy miles during 
the period of the volcano’s greatest activity about two years previous. 
Looking seaward, rosy vapors outlined the course of the lava down to 
the shore of the island where the fire of final lava cascades gave color to 
two huge clouds of steam. The fires illumined the scene so as to give light 
to guide a way over the broken lava, which is at best a precarious 
ground, and again and again through the night we chmbed from our 
camp at the base of the cone to look down upon the fascinating but awful 
marvel. 
Even when we saw it in the daytime, it was hard to realize the scene 
actual and not an imaginary panorama of Dantesque infernal regions. 
The yawning cavity of the crater extended a full half mile in length, and its 
width was more than four hundred yards. Almost perpendicular and 
sometimes undercut, the crater walls dropped hundreds of feet to the lake 
of molten lava, which was in such violent commotion that it seemed to be 
liquid fame rather than a mass of fused and fiery rock. At certain places 
it boiled with unusual activity, sending huge jets and fountains high into 
the air. Its waves moved hither and thither at different times, but now 
and then they would surge heavily and dash against the wall where the 
lava made its final way to the ocean. And always from this surface, thin 
steam-like vapor charged with acid gases swirled upward in the draught 
-aused by the strongly-blowing trade winds, making it unpleasant to look 
over the edge even from the windward side. 
We had begun the ascent of the voleano early in the afternoon in order 
to reach the crater before dusk. Proceeding through the undestroyed 
woods of a neighboring valley we entered upon the lava field at a point 
some miles from the coast, thus obviating the necessity of traversing its 
whole extent from sea to crater. Our natives, bearing food and water, now 
