24 KAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



This part of our expedition was very arduous, and 

 we were more than an hour in reaching the eastern 

 summit of the island. Here we found a narrow 

 ledge like the angle of a roof, the two sides of 

 which sloped each in its own direction ; the left- 

 hand declivity led to the part of the mountain 

 which we had just quitted, whilst the right-hand slope, 

 whose inclination was precisely that which would be 

 assumed by moving substances obeying the laws of 

 gravity, presented a perfectly smooth surface, which 

 was terminated by a rock, lying about 1500 feet 

 below us, and overhanging a vertical precipice. We 

 crossed rapidly over this edge, and reached the 

 summit of the old cone, which is more than 600 feet 

 above the present crater, which opens on its crumbled 

 sides. As if to celebrate our arrival, the volcano 

 saluted us by an eruption. We saw the abyss 

 kindling at our feet, whilst a magnificent jet of fire 

 rose towards us with a noise resembling the repeated 

 discharge of artillery. 



Standing immediately above the crater, and 

 unable to advance far over this moving soil, we were 

 impeded in our observations by the mountain itself; 

 whilst we were moreover almost constantly sur- 

 rounded by clouds impregnated with stifling gases. 

 To avoid these inconveniences, we descended to a 

 lateral ridge, where we were able at our leisure to 

 contemplate the desolate scene displayed before our 

 eyes. Three concentric ridges, of which the two 

 outer ones are partially destroyed, encompass the 

 volcanic crater. Behind us steep declivities stretched 

 down to the cultivated regions, which we had found 



