TIME AND CHANGE 



ing except at a great distance, through field-glasses, 

 but we saw a photograph of it and a dried specimen 

 after we came down from the summit. 



It is an all day's trip down into the crater and 

 back, climbing over sliding sands and loose scoria, 

 and our time was too limited to undertake it. We 

 passed the night on the summit in a rude stone 

 hut, which had a fireplace where the guide made 

 coffee, but we had only the volcanic rock for floor. 

 Upon this we spread our ample supply of blankets, 

 and got such sleep as is to be had on high, cold 

 mountain-tops, where the ribs of the mountain 

 prove to be so much harder than one's own ribs — 

 not a first-class quality of sleep, but better than 

 none. 



I arose about two o'clock, and made my way out 

 into the star-blazing night. Such glory of the hea- 

 vens I had never before seen. I had never before 

 been lifted up so near them, and hence had never 

 before seen them through so rarefied an atmosphere. 

 The clouds and vapors had disappeared, and all the 

 hosts of heaven were magnified. The Milky Way 

 seemed newly paved and swept. There was no wind 

 and no sound. The mighty crater was a gulf of 

 blackness, but the sky blazed with light. 



The dawn comes early on such a mountain-top, 

 and before four o'clock we were out under the fad- 

 ing stars. As we had seen the day pass into night, 

 surrounded by these wonderful scenes, now we saw 



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