28 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



and by the declivity of the mountain, I advanced 

 without fatigue, but with no direct aim and as if I 

 were moving in a dream, in the midst of thick dark- 

 ness, over ground which slid away from my feet. 

 In ten minutes' time, we had passed beyond the 

 limits to which the ashes and cinders extended, and 

 here it became necessary to proceed with the greatest 

 caution, as we had literally to feel our way for the 

 rest of the descent. Our hands were touching the 



O 



edges of steep declivities which we could not see, 

 and the extremities of rocks which we were obliged 

 to descend step by step. At length, however, we 

 reached the shore without accident, where in about 

 half an hour we were joined by the rest of our party. 

 Without loss of time, we at once returned to our 

 boat in order that we might observe the volcano 

 from the sea ; the view, however, was not nearly so 

 striking as on the mountain itself, the crater being 

 too distant from the spectator. We may indeed dis- 

 tinguish the jet of burning matters which are thrown 

 up from the volcano, but the scene has none of that 

 magnificent grandeur which it possesses when it is 

 viewed from the mountain top, where the incandescent 

 smoke rises in eddying clouds round the old and half- 

 crumbled cones which are illuminated by the tempo- 

 rary flashes of the eruptions. 



This slight disappointment, however, did not make 

 us regret our nocturnal expedition ; for the sea, as 

 if by way of atonement, exhibited to us in all its 

 splendour the glorious phenomena of its phospho- 

 rescence. For more than an hour, the waters around 

 us seemed to be kindled into a blaze of light, as if 



