letter xxix.] CAMPING ON THE SUMMIT. 



267 



peared a dark grey, tolerably level lake, with great black 

 blotches, and yellow and white stains, the whole much fissured. 

 No steam or smoke proceeded from any part of the level sur- 

 face, and it had the unnaturally dead look which follows the 

 action of fire. A ledge, or false beach, which must mark a 

 once higher level of the lava, skirts the lake, at an elevation of 

 thirty feet probably, and this fringed the area with various signs 

 of present volcanic action, steaming sulphur banks, and heavy 

 jets of smoke. The other side, above the crater, has a ridgy, 

 broken look, giving the false impression of a mountainous 

 region beyond. At this time the luminous fountain, and the 

 red cracks in the river of lava which proceeded from it, were 

 the only fires visible in the great area of blackness. In former 

 days people have descended to the floor of the crater, but 

 owing to the breaking away of the accessible part of the preci- 

 pice, a descent is not feasible, though I doubt not that a 

 man might even now get down, if he went up with suitable 

 tackle, and sufficient assistance. 



The one disappointment was that this extraordinary fire- 

 fountain was not only 800 feet below us, but nearly three- 

 quarters of a mile from us, and that it was impossible to get 

 any nearer to it. Those who have made the ascent before have 

 found themselves obliged either to camp on the very spot we 

 occupied, or a little below it. 



The natives pitched the tent as near to the crater as was 

 safe, with one pole in a crack, and the other in the great fis- 

 sure, which was filled to within three feet of the top with snow 

 and ice. As the opening of the tent was on the crater side, we 

 could not get in or out without going down into this crevasse. 

 The tent walls were held down with stones to make it as snug 

 as possible, but snug is a word of the lower earth, and has no 

 meaning on that frozen mountain top. The natural floor was 

 of rough slabs of lava, laid partly edgewise, so that a newly 

 macadamised road would have been as soft a bed. The 

 natives spread the horse blankets over it, and I arranged the 

 camping blankets, made my own part of the tent as comfort- 

 able as possible by putting my inverted saddle down for a 

 pillow, put on my last reserve of warm clothing, took the food 

 out of the saddle bags, and then felt how impossible it was to 

 exert myself in the rarefied air, or even to upbraid Mr. Green 

 for having forgotten the tea, of which I had reminded him as 

 often as was consistent with politeness ! 



This discovery was not made till after we had boiled the 



