DESCENDING INTO AN EXTINCT CRATER. 399 



rain-clouds gathered and began pouring down heavy 

 showers, which obsem^ed every thing about us^ and I 

 could only see that we stood on the edge of a vast 

 yawning gultl Our way now rapidly descended first 

 to the right and then to the left, and, as I looked 

 down into the deep abyss which we were descend- 

 ing, such thick vapors enveloped us that every thing 

 was hidden from our view at the distance of a hun- 

 died yards, and it seemed as if we must be going 

 down into the Bottomless Pit. Down and down we 

 went, until at last I became quite discouraged, and 

 seriously began to think of explaining to my native 

 guide that the wisest heads which lived in my land 

 believe that the centre of the earth is nothing but a 

 mass of molten rock, and to inquii'e of him whether 

 he was sure we should stop short of such an uncom- 

 foi'table place, when the thick mist which enshi'ouded 

 us cleared away, and I beheld far, far beneath me a 

 large lake, and above me the steep, overhanging crar 

 ter-wall which I had descended ; but I was only half- 

 way down, yet I had the satisfaction of kno^ving there 

 was an end to the way, and, besides, the road was not 

 so steep, and consequently not so slippery as the half 

 we ha(l already come. So we slipped and plodded 

 on, and early in the afternoon I came to the residence 

 of the controleur of that region, at the village of Ma- 

 nindyu, on the east side of the lake. 



The height of the edge of the crater where we 

 began to descend is thuty-sis hundred feet, and that 

 of the lake fifteen hundred and forty above the sea 

 The perpendicular distance that we had come down, 

 therefore, was over two thousand feet ; but to come 



