270 



HA WAIL 



[letter XXIX. 



up to a height of 10,000 feet on the windward side in a few 

 miserable, blasted forms, it absolutely ceases at a height of 

 7000 feet on the leeward. 



It was too cold to sit up all night ; so by the " fire light " I 

 wrote the enclosed note to you with fingers nearly freezing on 

 the pen, and climbed into the tent. 



It is possible that tent life in the East, or in the Rocky 

 Mountains, with beds, tables, travelling knick-knacks of all 

 descriptions, and servants who study their master's whims, 

 may be very charming ; but my experience of it having been 

 of the make-shift and non-luxurious kind, is not delectable. A 

 wooden saddle, without stuffing, made a very fair pillow ; but 

 the ridges of the lava were severe. I could not spare enough 

 blankets to soften them, and one particularly intractable point 

 persisted in making itself felt. I crowded on everything attain- 

 able, two pairs of gloves, with Mr. Oilman's socks over them, 

 and a thick plaid muffled up my face. Mr. Green and the 

 natives, buried in blankets, occupied the other part of the tent. 

 The phrase, "sleeping on the brink of a volcano," was lite- 

 rally true, for I fell asleep, and fear I might have been 

 prosaic enough to sleep all night, had it not been for fleas 

 which had come up in the camping blankets. When I woke, 

 it was light enough to see that the three muffled figures were 

 all asleep, instead of spending the night in shiverings and 

 vertigo, as it appears that others have done. Doubtless the 

 bathing of our heads several times with snow and ice-water had 

 been beneficial. 



Circumstances were singular. It was a strange thing to 

 sleep on a lava-bed at a height of nearly 14,000 feet, far away 

 from the nearest dwelling, "in a region," as Mr. Jarves says, 

 "' rarely visited by man," hearing all the time the roar, clash, 

 and thunder of the mightiest volcano in the world. It seemed 

 a wild dream, as that majestic sound moved on. There were 

 two loud reports, followed by a prolonged crash, occa- 

 sioned by parts of the crater walls giving way ; vibrating 

 rumblings, as if of earthquakes ; and then a louder surging 

 of the fiery ocean, and a series of most imposing detonations. 

 Creeping over the sleeping forms, which never stirred even 

 though I had to kneel upon one of the natives while I untied 

 the flap of the tent, I crept cautiously into the crevasse in which 

 the snow-water was then hard frozen, and out upon the pro- 

 jecting ledge. The four hours in which we had previously 

 watched the volcano had passed like one ; but the lonely hours 



