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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



most ample justice. Three of our guides had been left 

 in the cleft of the rock to prepare the meal. It was 

 interesting to see one of them scrape a hole in the earth 

 and place in it our eggs and bottles of milk, which were 

 thus warmed by the natural heat of the mountain. 



The clouds rolled out vast beneath us. They were 

 again of dazzling whiteness under the light of the sun, 

 which was now above them and us. Occasionally, when 

 they parted, we had fleeting views of Karuizawa and 

 picked out our homes and the well -loved, familiar objects 

 of the village. We felt a pity for the less happy people 

 who were content to live in the valley and never climb. 



Then for a time after breakfast we sat upon the west 

 side of the mountain, where there were no clouds, and 

 looked out over the weird lava beds, the valley of the 

 village of Komoro, and the mountains of the west coast 

 range, which reared their snow-capped peaks beyond. 



One must say a word about the lava beds. They are 

 the product of the last great eruption of Asama, which 

 in the summer of 1783 rolled down a molten stream ten 

 miles wide over a primeval forest and the peaceful vil- 

 lages of many happy farmers. After a hundred and 

 twenty-three years the lava beds continue as in the first 

 year, huge, shapeless masses, on which nothing grows, 

 piles of burnt-out clinkers twenty-five feet high, full of 

 dark chasms over which no roads are made. There is 

 no place in the world where one will get a deeper im- 

 pression of monstrous Titanic might than here. 



While it is cold upon the mountain-top, it is hot in 

 the plain beneath, and if we would not travel across that 

 plain under the fierce heat of a midday sun, we must 

 now make ready for return. It is quicker going down 

 than going up; and we return easily, running, jumping, 

 sliding, and slipping, ever downwards. 



After we had left the crater some distance behind us, 

 one of our guides suddenly called to us to look around. 

 Old Asama, in honor of our departure, had sent forth a 

 sudden tremendous eruption of steam and lava. It 



