THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



129 



before the gusty winds that penetrated 

 everything, until our tent roof looked like 

 a basket. How we wished to study the 

 valley from the shelter of a house with a 

 real roof, where we could keep things dry 

 and contemplate the wonders of nature 

 with some degree of personal comfort ! 



But in the intervals between the rains 

 the sunshine made up for all the hard- 

 ships we endured. The weather here is 

 somewhat like the little girl with the curl : 

 "When it is bad it is undeniably horrid, 

 but when it is good it is so very, very 

 good" that one straightway forgives the 

 evil moods. Whenever the skies cleared 

 we instantly forgot the discomforts which 

 we had endured, and one and all gave 

 ourselves up to admiration of the sur- 

 passing beauty which surrounded us. 



Having thus established ourselves in 

 the valley, we proceeded to prepare for 

 the study of the many scientific problems 

 presented by this unique place. 



One of the first peculiar discoveries 

 made by us when we arrived in the valley 

 was the great number of dead insects 

 around the vents, where they had been 

 killed by flying into the live steam. Hine, 

 therefore, came up for a few days to 

 study the insects with the purpose of as- 

 certaining how they get into the valley 

 and where they breed (see page 135). 



The larger animals are practically ab- 

 sent, but we found occasional tracks of 

 bears, wolves, and wolverines, which had 

 crossed the valley from one range to the 

 other. 



Most of these were old, but one day I 

 found the tracks of a bear which had 

 crossed during the night. I wish I could 

 have watched him when his feet sank into 

 the patches of soft, scalding mud that lay 

 in his way. He must have been treated 

 to the surprise of his life! But however 

 he felt, he kept right on straight across 

 the valley, without making the slightest 

 deviation to avoid the bad places, often 

 sinking deep into the hot mud (see page 

 152). 



Maynard, with one of the others for 

 assistant, toiled up to the summits day 

 after day with 30-pound packs to secure 

 the topographic map which is the neces- 

 sary basis for all our statements of areas 

 and sizes. His was arduous work and 



the effort was often wasted, for the days 

 when the mountain summits are perfectly 

 clear, as is necessary for this work, are 

 rare around mountain passes anywhere, 

 and here especially so. 



Sometimes the weather seemed to have 

 an almost fiendish power of opposing 

 their plans, for several times from the 

 valley we could watch and see a thin 

 cloud hanging all day to the very summit, 

 on which they stood shivering, while the 

 other mountains all around were clear. 

 More than once it seemed as if there 

 would not be enough clear days to com- 

 plete the observations, but in the end they 

 succeeded in getting the data for an ex- 

 cellent map. 



PRACTICALLY ALL PLANT LIFE DESTROYED 



The most disagreeable, as well as one 

 of the most difficult, tasks fell to Shipley, 

 who collected samples of gas from the 

 vents for analysis, from which it is hoped 

 to learn much about volcanoes in general 

 and those of this district in particular. 

 In laying out work in advance, to poke a 

 glass tube into a vent and pump the gas 

 into a collector sounds easy, but in the 

 field all sorts of difficulties crop up which 

 require great patience and resourceful- 

 ness to surmount. Apparatus will not do 

 what is expected of it ; tubes clog prema- 

 turely or snap in the heat. 



Moreover, a volcano is not an easy 

 customer to deal with at close range. 

 When, after some trouble, one is in a po- 

 sition where he can get his sample, and a 

 sudden shift of wind brings a cloud of 

 hot, blinding gas around him, he is placed 

 in a difficult, not to say dangerous, situa- 

 tion. More than once our gas collectors 

 became lost, but fortunately the precious 

 samples were all secured without mishap 

 and a considerable amount of other val- 

 uable chemical work done. 



Only the botanists were without em- 

 ployment, for in the formation of the 

 valley all life was completely annihilated 

 and plants are practically absent. Not 

 quite so, however, for around some of the 

 vents moss and algae are beginning to 

 start where bathed by the warm breath 

 of the fumarole, from which thev derive, 

 beside the constant moisture, their supply 

 of nitrogen in the form of ammonia, 



