P'okanic Mounl^in in St. Viiice*it*;3. ±*j 



we gained the top of the peak I had dire£ted my co\3iTe to be- 

 fore ; when, in an hiftant, we were furprlfed with one of the 

 grandeil and moft awful fcenes 1 had ever beheld* I wnsflruck 

 with it amazingly, as I could not have conceived fuch a vtry 

 large and fo fingularly formed an excavation. It is lituated on 

 the center of the mountain, and where the various ridges 

 unite. Its diameter is fomething more than a mile, and its cir- 

 cumference to appearance a perfefc circle. Its depth from the 

 furrounding margin is above a quarter of a mile, and it nar- 

 rows a little, but very regularly, to the bottom. Its fides are 

 very fmooth, and for the moll: part covered with {liort mofs'^> 

 except towards the fouth^ where there are a number of fmall 

 holes and rents. This is the only place where it is poffible to 

 jgo down to the bottom : it is exceedingly dangerous, owing to 

 the numberlefs fm^il chafms. On the weft fide is a fedion of 

 red rock like granite, cut very fmooth, and of the fame decli- 

 .. ■ vity with the other parts. All the reft of the furrounding fides 

 feems to be compofed of fand, that looks to have undergone 

 the a(flion of intenfe fire. It has a cruft quite finooth, of 

 about an inch thick, and hard almoft as rock ; after breaking 

 through which, you find nothing butloofe fand. In the center, 

 of the bottom is a burning mountain of about a mile in cir- 

 cumference j of a Gonic form, but quite level. On the fum- 

 mit, out of the center of the top, arifes another mount, eight 

 or ten feet high, a perfe*5t cone ; from its apex iflues a column 

 of fmoke* It is compofed of large maffes of red granite-like 

 rock of various fiies and fllapes, which appear to have been 

 fplit into their prefent magnitudes by fome terrible convulfion 

 of nature, and are piled up very regular. From moft parts of 

 the mountain iffue great quantities of fmoke, efpecially on the 

 iiorth fide, which appears to be burning from top to bottom j 



E 2 and 



