DESCENDING INTO AN EXTINCT CRATER. 399 



rain-clouds gathered and began pouring down liea\^ 

 showers, wliicli obscured every tiling about us, and I 

 could only see that we stood on the edge of a vast 

 yawning gulf*. Our way now rapidly descended first 

 to the right and then to the left, and, as I looked 

 down into the deep abyss w^hich we were descend- 

 ing, such thick vapors enveloped us that every thing 

 was hidden from our view at the distance of a hun- 

 dred yards, and it seemed as if we must be going 

 down into the Bottomless Pit. Down and down we 

 went, until at last I became quite discouraged, and 

 seriously began to think of explaining to my native 

 guide that the wisest heads which lived in my land 

 believe that the centre of the earth is nothing but a 

 mass of molten rock, and to inquire of him whether 

 he w^as sure we should stop short of such an uncom- 

 fortable place,'when the thick mist which enshrouded 

 us cleared away, and I beheld far, far beneath me a 

 large hike, and above me the steep, overhanging cra- 

 ter- w^all w^hich I had descended ; but I w^as only half- 

 way do^vn, yet I had the satisfaction of knowing there 

 was an end to the way, and, besides, the road was not 

 so steep, and consequently not so slippery as the half 

 w^e had already come. So we slipped and plodded 

 on, and early in the afternoon I came to the residence 

 of the controleur of that region, at the village of Ma- 

 nindyu, on the east side of the lake. 



The heiirht of the edg^e of the crater w^here we 

 began to descend is thirty-six hundred feet, and that 

 of the lake fifteen hundred and forty above the sea. 

 The perpendicular distance that we had come down, 

 therefore, was over two thousand feet ; but to come 



