70 
THE CRATER AND THE SANDV SEA. 
were at the nearest point to it, it threw out a splendid 
pufiT of smoke or ashes, as white as snow, in the shape of a 
tree, or more Hke a huge cauliflower of superfine wool At 
first I felt very uncomfortable riding along the narrow path, 
more especially at one spot where we turned suddenly at 
nearly a right angle. I felt exactly as if the saddle was 
going to slip over the pony's head ; besides, the pony would 
crop the grass just on the very edge of the precipice, but 
I was told to give him his head, as these ponies were so 
sure-footed that there was no danger. My companion's pony 
actually had the audacity to shy, at a place where there was 
barely sufficient room to turn round. By degrees I got used 
to iE, and could look at the tops of the trees a thousand feet 
below me without a shudder We descended to the sandy 
sea at a place where the wall was not quite so perpendicular, 
and proceeded to the crater. The sand is quite hard^ as 
fine as drifted snow, and in many places the wind had 
formed it into waves and ridges exactly similar to a snow 
drift. On one side, the plain is covered with hundreds of 
stones, some very large, which have been thrown out from 
the volcano, I rode through the desolate looking ravines 
formed amongst the lava to within a couple of hundred feet 
of the edge of the crater, and when I got to the top the sight 
I saw made me almost tumble backwards. I looked right 
into a hole, a bowl would be more expressive, nearly a mile 
across, between three and four miles in circumference, 
and said to be fifteen hundred feet deep ; 1 could see right 
to the bottom of the crater, which was not even smoking ; 
the awful stillness of this fearful pit was quite appalling, yet 
I could not tear myself away from the spot, it was so terribly 
grand. In returning I had again to cross the sandy sea, and 
