256 



HA WAIl. 



[LETTER XXIX, 



of their torment goeth up for ever and ever," " The place ofs 

 hell," " The bottomless pit," " The vengeance of eternal fire," 

 "A lake of fire burning with brimstone." No sight can be soi 

 fearful as this glimpse into the interior of the earth, where: 

 fires are for ever wallowing with purposeless force and aimless; 1 

 agony. 



Beyond the lake there is a horrible region in which dense; 

 volumes of smoke proceed from the upper ground, with loud 

 bellowings and detonations, and we took our perilous way in 

 that direction, over very hot lava which gave way constantly. 

 It is near this that the steady fires are situated which are visible! 

 from this house at night. We came first upon a solitary 

 " blowing cone," beyond which there was a group of three or: 

 four, but it is not from these that the smoke proceeds, but from 

 the extensive area beyond them, covered with smoke and steam; 

 cracks, and smoking banks, which are probably formed of sul- 

 phur deposits. I visited only the solitary cone, for the footing 

 was so precarious, the sight so fearful, and the ebullitions ot 

 gases so dangerous, that I did not dare to go near the others, i 

 and do not wish ever to look upon their like again. 



The one I saw was of beehive shape, about twelve feet high, 

 hollow inside, and its walls were about two feet thick. A part 

 of its imperfect top was blown off, and a piece of its side blown 

 out, and the side rent gave one a frightful view of its interior, t 

 with the risk of having lava spat at one at intervals. The name 

 " Blowing Cone" is an apt one, if the theory of their construc- 

 tion be correct. It is supposed that when the surface of the > 

 lava cools rapidly owing to enfeebled action below, the gases 

 force their way upwards through small vents, which then serve 

 as " blow holes " for the imprisoned fluid beneath. This, 

 rapidly cooling as it is ejected, forms a ring on the surface of 

 the crust, which, growing upwards by accretion, forms a 

 chimney, eventually nearly or quite closed at the top, so as to 

 form a cone. In this case the cone is about eighty feet above . 

 the present level of the lake, and fully one hundred yards dis- 

 tant from its present verge. 



The whole of the inside was red and molten, full of knobs, 

 and great fiery stalactites. Jets of lava at a white heat were 

 thrown up constantly, and frequently the rent in the side spat out • 

 lava in clots, which cooled rapidly,;and looked like drops of bottle- 

 green glass. The glimpses I got of the interior were necessarily 

 brief and intermittent. The blast or roar which came up from 

 below was more than deafening ; it was stunning : and accom- 



