Exploration of West Valley 



to make the whole atmosphere quiver. As light travels 

 at 186,000 miles per second, we saw the cloud almost at 

 the same moment that it was produced, but the sound, 

 which travels much more slowly (about noo feet per 

 second), took an appreciable time to reach us. 



As we stood on the summit, several other explosions 

 took place in rapid succession, and as these were even 

 more violent than the first, it was evident that a second 

 eruption had commenced, or that we had arrived on the 

 scene during a temporary lull. We at once made our 

 way back to the fork and started up the smaller stream 

 in order to get as near a view as possible of the 

 volcano. 



After a somewhat steep climb by the side of the 

 roaring torrent, we emerged from the valley on to a 

 plateau composed of ancient lava-flows. These had 

 become weathered in the course of ages, and a luxuriant 

 growth of bushes had sprung up, though as yet there 

 were no large trees. We now had an uninterrupted view 

 of the two cones, the smaller one still throwing out clouds 

 of steam at intervals. 



After a brief survey of the scene we came to the 

 conclusion that the best place from which to observe the 

 eruption would be some point on the side of the larger, 

 quiescent cone, as it was obviously unsafe to attempt an 

 ascent of the smaller one in its present state of activity. 

 The large cone overtopped the smaller by at least 

 1000 feet, and we hoped that if we were able to reach 

 its summit we could obtain a bird's-eye view of the 

 whole of the active area. It was much too late in the 

 day to attempt the ascent, so we chose a comfortable 

 corner behind some large blocks of lava at the foot of 

 p 225 



