7 ites rons, &c. 241 
- The remainder of the day was given to otic. TAs the darkness 
of the night closed around us, however, we took a station in sight of 
the crater, and, wrapped in our cloaks, sat in the fresh wind on the 
precipice for an hour or more, catching occasionally through the 
smoke, exhibitions of great beauty and sublimity. But there were 
none to prevent a feeling of disappointed expectation, on my part, in 
comparison with the high gratification before derived from the same 
object: and I returned to our lodge. with my companions, thinking 
that [must remain indebted to my first visit, for the sublimest im- 
presions ever made on my mind | baat feelings, by a work of nature. — 
In this, however, 1 was mistaken. After some hours of sound sleep, 
T awoke ; and perceiving the smoke and clouds over the voleano to 
’ be splendidly illuminated, hastened with a glass to.a point of observa- 
tion. A very sensible change had taken place in the liveliness-of the 
seats of fire—in the vividness of the flashings of light—and in the 
sharpness and force of the sounds from various parts. I had been seat- 
* ed about ten minutes, fixing, with great delight, the field of the teles- 
ope on one and another of the cones, and on the lakes and rivers 
of bright lava, when a sudden hissing and mingling of confused 
sounds, accompanied by a brilliant glare of flames almost directly be- 
neath me, attracted my attention, and led me to direct the glass to 
the spot. In doing this, I was presented with a spectacle, va 
even imagination itself can scarce rival. 
The power of the glass was such as to bring the scene, seeming- 
ly, within touching distance ; and to make me involuntarily recoil, 
tom the apparent proximity. A lake, a half mile or more in cir- 
cumference—and probably but just unclosed—was raging in all the 
. 
We shuddered, at the ae catastrophe—but seeing a sufficient number of the 
ollected, any assistance which might be nner we waited 
wishing to witness an event ‘whic h we hadn er to ar- 
cessful; mS shorily after, pale as de echec-ioeasttias like an aspen leaf—and cover- 
ed with a cold sweat, he came and laid the old Leghorn at my feet! 
hat wa worth a moment of anxiety, much less such an exposure; and, 
while I rewarded the intrepidity, I on aged - eee the rasbness of the young 
man. None but the kindest and motives induced the an 
‘principal one, doubtless, being that of seeing me under the necessity of resorting 
toa turban : silk handkerchiefs, to shield my head from a noonday tropical ait 
gh alar ing in its possible consequences, the motive merited commendation and 
stateful ndkinse iediguee nt. 
