ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 339 



hot that vapor arose on this not too cool atmosphere. 

 It was sulphur-impregnated, also, as the discolored 

 leaves abundantly testified, and flowed over a bitu- 

 minous bed. The luxuriance of the vegetation here 

 was marvelous, and pen of mine cannot describe the 

 beauty of the ferns, orchids, and parasites, arches and 

 bridges of tropical trees and ferns, that overhung and 

 spanned this tepid stream. A few rods farther up 

 we came upon a basin of colorless water, walled off 

 with blocks of lava, the overflow of which formed the 

 stream. At it I cast a wistful glance, but could only 

 stop to feel its warmth with my hand and note the 

 beauty of the banks of ferns above it. Here we left 

 my apparatus, plunged anew into a depth of green- 

 wood, and commenced an ascent that, for steepness, 

 left all former paths behind. We had to lift ourselves 

 up by successive broad steps, and cling to roots and 

 trees for aid. 



Emerging from the darkness of this tunnel-like 

 passage, we came upon another zone of vegetation, 

 where the trees were dwarfed to shrubs, and so inter- 

 twined and matted together that a path had to be cut 

 with the cutlass. Every native laborer of these islands 

 carries a large and ugly-looking machete, or cutlass, 

 nearly two and a half feet long and two inches broad, 

 which serves them in a variety of ways. There we 

 found the path washed into deep, cistern-like cavities, 

 down which we descended on one side only to climb 

 out at the other. After much hard work this rough 

 road was gone over, and we came abruptly upon a 

 plain of small extent, and, looking up, saw the cone 

 whose side we fain would climb. Straight before us 

 was the trail of former tourists, which climbed directly 



