letter xxix.] A WASTE OF LAVA. 



263 



a peculiarity of bearing two distinct species of leaves on the 

 same twig, one like a curved willow leaf, the other that of an 

 acacia. 



After two hours' ascent we camped on the verge of the timber 

 line, and fed our animals, while the two natives hewed firewood, 

 and loaded the spare pack-horse with it. The sky was by that 

 time cloudless, and the atmosphere brilliant, and both remained 

 so until we reached the same place twenty-eight hours later, 

 so that the weather favoured us in every respect, for there is 

 " weather " on the mountain, rains, fogs, and wind storms. The 

 grass only grows sparsely in tufts above this place, and though 

 vegetation exists up to a height of 10,000 fe'et on this side, it 

 consists, for the most part, of grey lichens, a little withered 

 grass, and a hardy asplenium. 



At this spot the real business of the ascent begins, and we 

 tightened our girths, distributed the baggage as fairly as possible, 

 and made all secure before remounting. 



We soon entered on vast uplands of pahochoe which ground ' 

 away the animals' feet, a horrid waste, extending upwards for 

 7000 feet. For miles and miles, above and around, great bil- 

 lowy masses, tossed and twisted into an infinity of fantastic 

 shapes, arrest and weary the eye, lava in all its forms, from a 

 compact phonolite to the lightest pumice stone, the mere froth 

 of the volcano. Recollect the vastness of this mountain. The 

 whole south of this large island, down to and below the water's 

 edge, is composed of its slopes. Its height is nearly three miles, 

 and its base is 180 miles in circumference, so that Wales might 

 be packed away within it, leaving room to spare. Yet its whole 

 bulk, above a height of about 8000 feet, is one frightful desert, 

 at once the creation and the prey of the mightiest force on 

 earth. 



Struggling, slipping, tumbling, jumping, ledge after ledge 

 was surmounted, but still, upheaved against the glittering sky, 

 rose new difficulties to be overcome. Immense bubbles have 

 risen from the confused masses, and bursting, have yawned 

 apart. Swift-running streams of more recent lava have cleft 

 straight furrows through the older congealed surface. Massive 

 flows have fallen in, exposing caverned depths of jagged out- 

 lines. Earthquakes have riven the mountain, splitting its sides 

 and opening deep crevasses, which must be leapt or circum- 

 vented. Horrid streams of a-a, which, after rushing remorse- 

 lessly over the kindlier lava, have heaped rugged pinnacles of 

 brown scoria? into impassable walls, have to be cautiously 



