1834, JANUARY. DESCENT INTO THE CRATER 307 



freely in the above-mentioned fissure, ten feet from the surface, expressed 

 by repeated trials, 158 ; and an equal temperature was maintained 

 when it was nearly level with the surface. When the Islanders visit 

 this mountain, they invariably carry on their cooking operations at this 

 place. Some pork and a fowl that I had brought, together with Taro- 

 roots and Sweet Potatoes were steamed here to a nicety in twenty-seven 

 minutes, having been tied up in leaves of Banana. On the sulphur bank 

 are many fissures, which continually exhale sulphureous vapours, and 

 form beautiful prisms, those deposited in the inside being the most delicate 

 and varied in figure, encrusting the hollows in masses, both large and 

 small, resembling swallows' nests on the wall of a building. When severed 

 from the rock or ground, they emit a crackling noise by the contraction 

 of the parts in the process of cooling. The great thermometer, placed 

 in the holes, showed the temperature to be 195 5', after repeated trials 

 which all agreed together, the air being then 71. 



" I had furnished shoes for those persons who should descend into 

 the crater with me, but none of them could walk when so equipped, 

 preferring a mat sole, made of tough leaves, and fastened round the heel 

 and between the toes, which seemed indeed to answer the purpose entirely 

 well. Accompanied by three individuals, I proceeded at one P.M. along 

 the North side, and descended the first ledge over such rugged ground 

 as bespoke a long state of repose, the fissures and flanks being clothed 

 with verdure of considerable size : thence we ascended two hundred feet 

 to the level platform that divides the great and small volcanoes. On the 

 left, a perpendicular rock, three hundred feet above the level, shows the 

 extent of the volcano to have been originally much greater than it is at 

 present. The small crater appears to have enjoyed a long period of 

 tranquillity, for down to the very edge of the crust of the lava, particularly 

 on the East side, there are trees of considerable size, on which I counted 

 from sixty to one hundred and twenty-four annual rings or concentric 

 layers. The lava at the bottom flowed from a spot, nearly equidistant 

 from the great and small craters, both uniting into a river, from forty 

 to seventy yards in breadth, and which appears comparatively recent. 

 A little South of this stream, over a dreadfully rugged bank, I descended 

 the first ledge of the crater, and proceeded for three hundred yards over 

 a level space, composed of ashes, scoriae, and large stones that have been 

 ejected from the mouth of the volcano. The stream formerly described 

 is the only fluid lava here. Hence, to arrive at the black ledge, is another 

 descent of about two hundred and forty feet, more difficult to be passed 

 than any other, and this brings the traveller to the brink of the black 

 ledge, where a scene of all that is terrific to behold presents itself before 

 his eyes. He sees a vast basin, recently in a state of igneous fusion, now, 

 in cooling, broken up, somewhat in the manner of the great American 

 lakes when the ice gives way, in some places level in large sheets, else- 

 where rolled in tremendous masses, and twisted into a thousand different 

 shapes, sometimes even being filamentose, like fine hair, but all displaying 

 the mighty agency still existing in this immense depository of subter- 

 raneous fire. A most uncomfortable feeling is experienced when the 



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