FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 



the northern side. Never was a discovery more wel- 

 come ! Hastening forward, we both exclaimed, as we 

 warmed our chilled and benumbed extremities over 

 one of Pluto's fires, that here we would pass the night, 

 secure against freezing to death, at least. These jets 

 were from the size of that of a large steampipe to a 

 faint, scarcely perceptible emission, and issued all 

 along the rim among the loose rocks on the northern 

 side for more than half the circumference of the crater. 

 At intervals they would puff up more strongly, and the 

 smoke would collect in a cloud until blown aside and 

 scattered by the wind, and then their force would abate 

 for a time. 



A deep cavern, extending into and under the ice, and 

 formed by the action of heat, was found. Its roof was 

 a dome of brilliant green ice with long icicles pendent from 

 it, while its floor, composed of the rocks and debris 

 which formed the side of the crater, descended at an 

 angle of thirty degrees. Forty feet within its mouth 

 we built a wall of stones, inclosing a space five by six 

 feet around a strong jet of steam and heat. Unlike the 

 angular, broken rocks met with elsewhere, within the 

 crater we found well-rounded bowlders and stones of 

 all sizes worn as smooth by the trituration of the crater 

 as by the action of water. Nowhere, however, did we 

 observe any new lava or other evidences of recent vol- 

 canic action excepting these issues of steam and smoke. 

 Inclosed within the rude shelter thus hastily con- 

 structed, we discussed our future prospects while we 

 ate our lunch and warmed ourselves at our natural regis- 

 ter. The heat at the orifice was too great to bear for 

 more than an instant, but the steam wet us, the smell 

 of sulphur was nauseating, and the cold was so severe 

 that our clothes, saturated with the steam, froze stiff 

 when turned away from the heated jet. The wind 

 outside roared and whistled, but it did not much 

 affect us, secure within our cavern, except when an oc- 

 casional gust came down perpendicularly. However, 



