VISIT TO THE GREAT VOLCANO. 205 



every moment of being killed by the falling of fragments of 

 rocks, or of being precipitated down the fathomless pits. The 

 descent did not exceed four hundred yards, but we were up- 

 wards of twenty minutes in accomplishing it. 



Dr. Pickering and myself remained at the bottom of the 

 crater upwards of an hour. It varies in its character much ; in 

 some places the surface is so hot as to be painful to the feet, 

 and the gurgling sound of the liquid lava beneath warned us 

 that we were treading on dangerous ground ; in others it was 

 broken and twisted into every imaginable shape ; in others it 

 was thrown up in the wildest confusion, resulting, no doubt, 

 from the sudden cooling and contracting of the lava ; in 

 another place there were lakes of fire and smoke, and in 

 others again it presented a smooth glassy-like surface, and so 

 fragile as to frequently break through, and precipitate us 

 several feet before we gained a sure footing. I received several 

 falls, and bruised my hands and knees dreadfully. 



We approached within a few yards of the largest of the 

 lakes. It is situated to the northeast, and ranges in a direction 

 nearly east and west, and we estimated its circumference at up- 

 wards of three-quarters of a mile, it being oval in shape ; at the 

 east end the lava flowed in gentle waves — at the west it was in 

 a much higher state of action — it was there boiling and thrown 

 up into the air to the height of hundreds of feet, and then de- 

 scending again in showers of spray. The heat was so intense 

 as to burn our hands and faces many yards distant, and the 

 glare so strong as to be painful to the eyes. Thick black 

 columns of smoke rose from the centre. The wind roared like 

 thunder, as it rushed by us to fill the vacuum produced by 

 the intense heat, while at intervals the bank on which we 

 stood, cracked and shook in the most frightful manner. 

 The idea of falling into some of these fissures was by no 



