70 THE CRATER AND THE SANDY SEA. 



were at the nearest point to it, it threw out a splendid 

 puff of smoke or ashes, as white as snow, in the shape of a 

 tree, or more like a huge cauliflower of superfine wool. At 

 first I felt very uncomfortable riding along the narrow path, 

 more especially at one spot where we turned suddenly at 

 nearly a right angle. I felt exactly as if the saddle was 

 going to slip over the pony's head ; besides, the pony would 

 crop the grass just on the very edge of the precipice, but 

 I was told to give him his head, as these ponies were so 

 sure-footed that there was no danger. My companion's pony 

 actually had the audacity to shy, at a place where there was 

 barely sufficient room to turn round. By degrees I got used 

 to it, and could look at the tops of the trees a thousand feet 

 below me without a shudder. We descended to the sandy 

 sea at a place where the wall was not quite so perpendicular, 

 and proceeded to the crater. The sand is quite hard, as 

 fine as drifted snow, and in many places the wind had 

 formed it into waves and ridges exactly similar to a snow 

 drift. On one side, the plain is covered with hundreds of 

 stones, some very large, which have been thrown out from 

 the volcano. I rode through the desolate looking ravines 

 formed amongst the lava to within a couple of hundred feet 

 of the edge of the crater, and when I got to the top the sight 

 I saw made me almost tumble backwards. I looked right 

 into a hole, a bowl would be more expressive, nearly a mile 

 across, between three and four miles in circumference, 

 and said to be fifteen hundred feet deep ; I could see right 

 to the bottom of the crater, which was not even smoking ; 

 the awful stillness of this fearful pit was quite appalling, yet 

 I could not tear myself away from the spot, it was so terribly 

 grand. In returning I had again to cross the sandy sea, and 



