340 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
up the mountain-side, so steep it seemed impossible to 
ascend it. There was no vegetation now to obstruct 
the view. All about us the plain and steep acclivity 
was covered with a matted carpet of coarse grass. 
Immediately above us towered an immense rock, so 
delicately poised and so far-jutting, that it appeared 
ready to fall. Undoubtedly, the next earthquake will 
dislodge and hurl it below, to join its fellows that 
thickly stud the plain beneath. For an hour and a 
half, with many stops for breath, we mounted up- 
ward, and made a final pause beneath the rock to 
gather strength to meet the tempest of wind that 
howled above. Here my taciturn guide pointed out 
a narrow ledge where a man died of exhaustion, and 
was found at midnight by my informant, who was 
sent in search of him, on his knees, with his face 
covered with his hands. 
Imagine an immense pyramid, truncated by some 
internal force that has rent the sides at the same time, 
leaving the summit-plane strewn with huge rocks, and 
reft in twain by a mighty chasm, and you have the 
Soufriére of Guadeloupe at the present day. We fol- 
lowed a narrow path over sounding rocks that told of 
caverns beneath, and entered, through a great portal 
formed by two adjacent rocks, upon a plateau cov- 
ered with a carpet of sphagnum and lycopodium, 
spangled with pink blossoms, wild hemp, and yellow, 
trumpet-shaped flowers. Narrow trails crossed and 
recrossed this little track, like rivers on a map. It 
was now eleven o’clock, and we stopped to lunch. at 
the portal, —for, since my coffee, I had not tasted 
food that day,—then pursued our way across the 
plateau. We reached a dark chasm, made as though 
