188 Dr. Nugent oti the Souffrlere ofMontserrat, 



many fissures and crevices, whence very strong sulphureous ex- 

 halations arise, and which are diffused to a considerable distance ; 

 these exhalations are so powerful as to impede respiration, and near 

 any of the fissures are quite intolerable and suffocating. The but- 

 tons of my coat, and some silver and keys in my pockets were in- 

 stantaneously discoloured. An intense degree of heat is at the 

 same time evolved, which, added to the apprehension of the ground 

 crumbling and giving way, renders it difficult and painful to walk 

 near any of these fissures. The water of a rivulet which flows 

 down the sides of the mountain and passes over this place, is made 

 to boil with violence, and becomes loaded with sulphureous im- 

 pregnations. Other branches of the same rivulet which do not pass 

 immediately near these fissures, remain cool and limpid, and thus you 

 may with one hand touch one rill which is at the boiling point, and 

 with the other hand touch another rill which is of the usual tem- 

 perature of water in that climate. The exhalations of sulphur do 

 not at all times proceed from the same fissures, but new ones ap- 

 pear to be daily formed, others becoming, as it were, extinct. On 

 the margins of these fissures, and indeed almost over the whole 

 place, are to be seen most beautiful crystallizations of sulphur, 

 in many spots quite as fine and perfect as those from Vesuvius, or 

 indeed as any other specimens I have ever met with. The whole 

 mass of decomposed rock in the vicinity is, in like manner, quite 

 penetrated by sulphur. The specimens which I collected of the 

 crystallized sulphur, as well as of the decomposed and undecomposed 

 porphyry, were left inadvertently on board the packet at Falmouth, 

 which prevents my having the pleasure of exhibiting them to the 

 society. I did not perceive at this place any trace of pyrites, or any 

 other metallic substance, except indeed two or three small fragments 

 of clay iron-stone at a little distance, but did not discover even this 



