LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



of the old crater. This stream is the only present outlet 

 for the lava of the volcano. The crater is not in suffi- 

 cient action to force it over its sides. 



" There yet remained to be seen the interior of this 

 crater. Our guides spoke to us of the danger, and, per- 

 haps more from disliking the trouble of ascending than 

 from fear, at first refused to ascend with us. It was not 

 usual to climb it on this the eastern side ; but there was 

 no alternative, for the opposite side, where was the 

 beaten track, was rendered impassable by the thick 

 volumes of suffocating smoke. They at last consented, 

 as we had determined on going. Its elevation is about 

 250 feet, the whole of which has been formed within the 

 past five years; in 1830 there was but a small mound. 

 Its elevation is owing to the cinders and small pieces of 

 lava, with perhaps occasionally a current, which are 

 thrown out and fall down its sides. Its sides incline at 

 an angle of forty degrees, as great an inclination, con- 

 sidering the manner in which they are formed, as they 

 could have. When making the ascent I perceived, very 

 sensibly, a tremulous motion, and when on the summit, 

 I observed that this trembling took place at each of its 

 slight eruptions. There were no subterranean sounds. 

 The eruptions were of heated cinders, melted lava, and 

 sulphur, which were darted into the air to the height of 

 twenty or thirty feet, every four or five minutes. The 

 greater portion of them fell back into the crater. I 

 noticed that some small pieces of lava, which had fallen 

 to one side, were cooled by the time they had reached 

 the ridge of the cone. After all we were prevented from 

 viewing the internal operations by the thick smoke con- 

 tinually issuing from the part of the crater directly 

 beneath us, and obscuring the whole of the interior. 

 Occasionally it was partially cleared away by the wind, 

 and then we perceived some unheated rocks, within 

 twenty feet of the top, on the side opposite us. The diam- 

 eter of the nearly circular opening was not more than one 

 hundred feet. The ridge forming the circumference 

 was besprinkled with sulphur, which had been thrown 

 out in a fused state. The specimens were very delicate 

 and beautiful ; unfortunately too much so to be handled. 

 ' We were on the point of descending, when an erup- 

 tion, somewhat greater than what we had before seen, 



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