96 St. Helena. 



PAET I 



axis of tlie island, is the last wreck of the crater, 

 whence the most modern volcanic streams were poured 

 forth. 



The great hollow space or valley southward of the 

 central curved ridge, across which the half of the crater 

 must once have extended, is formed of bare, water- 

 worn hillocks and ridges of red, yellow, and brown 

 rocks, mingled together in chaos-like confusion, inter- 

 laced by dikes, and without any regular stratification. 

 The chief part consists of red decomposing scoriae, 

 associated with various kinds of tuff and yellow argil- 

 laceous beds, full of broken crystals, those of augite 

 being particularly large. Here and there masses of 

 highly cellular and amygdaloidal lavas protrude. From 

 one of the ridges in the midst of the valley, a conical' 

 precipitous hill, called Lot, boldly stands up, and forms 

 a most singular and conspicuous object. It is com- 

 posed of phonolite, divided in one part into great 

 curved laminae, in another, into angular concretionary 

 balls, and in a third part into outwardly radiating 

 columns. At its base the strata of lava, tuff, and 

 scoriae, dip away on all sides : l the uncovered portion 

 is 197 2 feet in height, and its horizontal section gives 

 an oval figure. The phonolite is of a greenish-gray 

 colour, and is full of minute acicular crystals of 

 feldspar; in most parts it has a conchoidal fracture, 

 and is sonorous, yet it is crenulated with. minute air- 

 cavities. In a SW. direction from Lot, there are 

 some other remarkable columnar pinnacles, but of a 



1 Abich, in his ' Views of Vesuvius ' (plate vi.), has shown the 

 manner in which beds, under nearly similar circumstances, are tilted 

 up. The upper beds are more turned \ip than the lower ; and he 

 accounts for this, by showing that the lava insinuates itself hori- 

 zontally between the lower beds. 



2 This height is given by Mr. Seale, in his Geognosy of the island. • 

 The hei°ht of the summit above the level of the sea, is said to be 

 1.144 feet. 



