ASCENT OF THE GUADELOUPE SOUFRIERE. 339 
hot that vapor arose on this not too cool atmosphere. 
It was sulphur-impregnated, also, as the discolored 
leaves abundantly testified, and flowed over a bitu- 
minous bed. The luxuriance of the vegetation here 
was marvelous, and pen of mine cannot describe the 
beauty of the ferns, orchids, and parasites, arches and 
bridges of tropical trees and ferns, that overhung and 
spanned this tepid stream. A few rods farther up 
we came upon a basin of colorless water, walled off 
with blocks of lava, the overflow of which formed the 
stream. At it I cast a wistful glance, but could only 
stop to feel its warmth with my hand and note the 
beauty of the banks of ferns above it. Here we left 
my apparatus, plunged anew into a depth of green- 
wood, and commenced an ascent that, for steepness, 
left all former paths behind. We had to lift ourselves 
up by successive broad steps, and cling to roots and 
trees for aid. 
Emerging from the darkness of this tunnel-like 
passage, we came upon another zone of vegetation, 
where the trees were dwarfed to shrubs, and so inter- 
twined and matted together that a path had to be cut 
with the cutlass. Every native laborer of these islands 
carries a large and ugly-looking machee, or cutlass, 
nearly two and a half feet long and two inches broad, 
‘ which serves them in a variety of ways. There we 
found the path washed into deep, cistern-like cavities, 
down which we descended on one side only to climb 
out at the other. After much hard work this rough 
road was gone over, and we came abruptly upon a 
plain of small extent, and, looking up, saw the cone 
whose side we fain would climb. Straight before us 
was the trail of former tourists, which climbed directly 
