Photograph by I,. G. Folsom 



WARMING MY HANDS AT ONE OF THE LITTLE FUMAROLES IN THE PASS 



The ground was encrusted with bright-colored sublimations from the escaping gases (see 



text below) 



With some trepidation we approached 

 over the fissured surface and discovered 

 that most of the steam issued from small 

 openings a few inches in diameter, 

 whence it came with considerable veloc- 

 ity, giving forth a low, roaring sound. 



We could come quite close and warmed 

 our hands in the steam, which, though 

 very hot as it emerged, soon cooled like 

 the vapor from a tea-kettle. 



Coming off with the steam were vari- 

 ous other substances, which gave rise to 

 curious evil-smelling odors and precipi- 

 tated a highly colored crust on the 

 ground. Prominent among these was the 

 "rotten-egg" smell of hydrogen sulphide 

 and of sulphur dioxide, while crystals of 

 sulphur gave a yellow tinge to the parti- 

 colored sublimations of the crust. 



I was anxious to return to Church, for 

 we had already been gone much longer 

 than we had expected when we left him. 

 So, starting to return, I had reached a 

 little eminence, for the fumaroles were 

 just over the pass, when, turning around 

 to urge Folsom to hasten, I saw far down 

 the valley, over the top of some rising 

 ground beyond us, a puff of steam. This 

 bad not been there when we came over 

 the pass and was evidently considerably 

 larger than the jets we had been examin- 



ing, and as the obstructing hill was not 

 far away I decided, late as it was, to go 

 forward and have a look. 



THE VALLEY OF TI-IE TEN THOUSAND 

 .SMOKES 



I can never forget my sensations at the 

 sight which met my eyes as I surmounted 

 the hillock and looked down the valley; 

 for there, stretching as far as the eye 

 could reach, till the valley turned behind 

 a blue mountain in the distance, were 

 hundreds — no, thousands — of little vol- 

 canoes like those we had just examined. 

 They were not so little, either ; for at 

 such a distance anything so small as the 

 little fumaroles at which we had been 

 warming our hands would not be no- 

 ticed. 



Many of them were sending up col- 

 umns of steam which rose a thousand 

 feet before dissolving. After a careful 

 estimate, we judged there must be a thou- 

 sand whose columns would exceed 500 

 feet (see page 62). 



It was as though all the steam-engines 

 in the world, assembled together, had 

 popped their safety-valves at once and 

 were letting off surplus steam in concert. 

 Some were closely grouped in lines along 

 a common fissure ; others stood apart. 



64 



