92 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



which served for a bedstead. After having filled the 

 brasero, and taken every possible precaution for keep- 

 ing up a good fire, we betook ourselves to our bed, 

 which was certainly very far preferable to the lava 

 floor of the Grotta delle Capre. Covered with our 

 cloaks and wrappers, and huddled close to one another 

 we soon fell asleep, notwithstanding the cold air 

 which passed from the frozen ground through the 

 badly formed frame of our bed. 



At two hours after midnight the guide awoke us, 

 and each of us grasping a stout staff, we set out by the 

 light of the moon on our road to the crater. We expe- 

 rienced some difficulty in crossing the stream of lava, 

 which in 1838 separated into two branches at the 

 foot of the eminence on which the casa is built. We 

 next passed over a bank of snow which craunched 

 under our feet, and finally descended a gentle slope, 

 covered with scoriae. Here we found ourselves at the 

 base of the cone, and we now began an ascent which 

 was fully as arduous as that of Stromboli. The 

 stones and sand crumbled away at every moment from 

 under our feet, until by the direction of our guide 

 we struck upon a lava bed lying somewhat further 

 west, and here the ascent became less fatiguing. At 

 last we reached the crater, where we stood motion- 

 less, wrapt in the contemplation of the spectacle pre- 

 sented to us. 



At our feet yawned the great crater. It was not 

 here a simple inverted cone or funnel as we had 

 observed in all the secondary cones, and which is the 

 case even on the summit of Vesuvius itself, nor did 

 we see before us that uniform blackness of the rocks 



