TRAPPERS 9 



thousand feet, kissed to virgin whiteness by 

 a brilliant sun, is one of the most gorgeous 

 spectacles one can imagine. 



The island of Jan May en is about thirty 

 miles long, lying from south-west to north-east, 

 and is formed of two separate masses of rock 

 connected by an isthmus. The southern portion 

 presents nothing but a series of peaks of ancient 

 craters, which rarely rise higher than about 

 eighteen hundred feet. The northern half is 

 triangular in shape, and possesses about ten 

 miles of coast line from which, in one enormous 

 mass, rises the crater of Beerenberg. East 

 and north the mountain declines in a series of 

 peaks supporting glaciers which fill the deep 

 gullies and finally drop sheer to the sea. The 

 narrow tongue of land connecting the two parts 

 of the island is about a mile and a half wide. 

 To the north, a chain of hills about five hundred 

 feet high forms the isthmus. To the south, it 

 extends a vast waste of cinders and lava, almost 

 completely filling what was formerly a lagoon. 

 This lagoon contains but little water even in 

 winter, and in summer is quite dry. The 

 plain is several miles long and is completely 

 covered with flotsam, from which the bay it 

 borders derives its name. 



The two craters seem to rise like sentinel 



