A BOTANICAL TOUR AMONG THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 129 
Tana is also very thickly — with vegetation. While there we beheld 
many interesting scenes, the most important of which, and one that will never 
be forgotten by me, was the laa ; and it is perhaps the most sublime sight 
eee can xi iem ent. This wonderful object is situated between five and six 
miles from Port Resolution, where we were anchored. The volcano is v 
active, an ain “i place every five or ten minutes, that can be Sai 
ma isit was & very hurried one, for I had been out some 
eightor ten miles the same day in another direction in search of plants, "t 
after parting with my guides, I agreed with two other natives who were along 
side the ship to take me to the voleano. Accordingly, getting into their canoe, 
I was paddled to the shore. A narrow, and in many places rugged, path led 
the ind through a suecession of dense gloomy forests and gullies, aud through 
ral villages, in one of which, although it was getting late, I could not resist 
"i temptation of making a sketch of a very fine species of Fig, n from 
its small leaves, not more than an inch long, I have ventured to n 
microphylla. I found its girth to be about forty-five feet around pr trunk. 
ts wi 
shade. Like the Banyan-tree of weed it throws down hundreds of roots to 
the earth, which soon grow and e props to its far-extended lateral 
branches. Long before I reached T Aon I had a glimpse of it from the 
tops of several hills. The smell of sulphur was strong three miles off, and I 
could nótice it upon my clothes. The vegetation, therefore, becomes less dense 
or luxuriant. Many trees, aided by the rich soil and moisture, appear to P 
i e 
in the valley beneath. Quite close to the foot of the voleano there 
is a small lake, covering an area of several hundred yards. This volcano is said 
to be about 1300 feet above the level of the sea, but I should have thought 
that it was much higher. The ascent is steep and very toilsome, owing to the 
loose character of the pulverized lava, sand, and sulphurous matter, that gave 
way under foot. The only relief is an occasional piece of scoria, which gives 
one foot-hold as he anxiously toils upward. My guides kept up a constant 
hatter between themselves, and would a make signs to me when an 
terrified at the idea of my doing so. t I thought that I had come to a 
meoc side of the mountain, or that di natives regarded it with a sort of 
religious dread. I learned afterwards from a missionary in one of the other 
