AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



439 



country beyond bad sunk down several feet; tbe whole foundation 

 being insecure. With at first some misgivings as to setting foot upon 

 tbe falling district, I proceeded; and soon remarked steam rising in 

 quantities at different points in sigbt. Tbe path led by degrees to- 

 wards one of these steam-vents; which I passed, and just beyond, 

 found myself unawares on the brink of tbe enormous pit, tbe Great 

 Crater. Tbe vastness of its proportions being a matter of calculation 

 and measurement, I found it impossible to realize the extent of area, 

 and was disappointed. From the portion of the brink on which I 

 was standing, tbe lake of molten rock was about two miles distant ; 

 tbe surface in the broad daylight chiefly dark-colored, with the mar- 

 ginal fountain-jets looking like tbe flickering flame of burning brush. 

 On a subsequent occasion, tbe jets at the distance of a fourth of a mile 

 through the smoke-like exhalation, agreed better with the usual de- 

 scriptions, and really bore some resemblance to " spouts of blood." 



Notwithstanding tbe large amount of molten rock, in a lake "nine 

 hundred feet" long with an area of " twelve acres," tbe temperature 

 on tbe brink of tbe Great Crater is not sensibly affected, and provision 

 must be made against suffering from cold at night; tbe surrounding 

 country seems a plain, but tbe elevation is not less than "four thou- 

 sand feet." Immediately around tbe Great Crater, gravelly soil pre- 

 vails, much of it remaining bare ; tbe plants met with on tbe way, 

 partly giving place to certain humble shrubs, a few inches only in 

 height : as a peculiar Vaccinkim, loaded with berries of different colors, 

 red and whitish ; a willow-leaved Daphne, rather frequent, with berries 

 closely resembling those of the intermingled orange-fruited Coffeac. ? ; 

 and more abundant here than elsewhere, tbe gen. Coffeac. with black 

 berries and almost Epacris-like foliage, from its profusion and its re- 

 curved spreading branches, often forming beds. In tbe extensive 

 gravelly almost Desert tract on the South side of the Great Crater, 

 a Oen. Silenoid, a shrub with Ericoid foliage, was subsequently found 

 to be the principal plant. 



At the Northern brink of the Great Crater, tbe supply of water is 

 sufficient for the use of visitors; being distilled without the aid of art, 

 and derived exclusively from steam : this is condensed jiartly on the 

 foliage of living plants around, the falling drops collecting in little 

 cavities in tbe rock, that after being emptied are soon replenished. 

 One or more tufts of an Iris-leaved liestioid were usually present, 

 overhanging tbe steam-vents; or sometimes the condensation was on 



