196 
Prof. Milne — Visit to an active Volcano. 
old crater (B), whose sides at this point descended perpendicularly 
I should tkink, at least 400 feet. Walking along this rim, which was 
covered witli large weatker-worn whitish boulders, wbicb looked not 
unlilce material whicli had been torn from the perpendicular faces 
below us, we found a slope of asbes, down wbicb we descended into 
tbe bed of tbe old crater. On looking at the face of tbe perpendicular 
Approximate section of the upper portion of Oshima. 
S — A, Outer slope of old crater-wall. (prehistoric ?) 
B, Floor of old crater, partly filled by later eruptions. 
B— C, F — N, Outer slopes of modern crater- walls. 
C, D,F, Bim of modern crater. 
E, New volcanic cone formed by present eruption, January, 1877. 
cliffs from tbe top of wbicb we had just descended, we sawthey con- 
sisted of irregularly broken and contorted bands of a whitish rock 
like trachyte, more or less parallel. They were capped with beds of 
asbes. In tbese ashes, as in the most scoriaceous portions of the 
lava, crystals of a glassy felspar were very abundant. In tbe more 
compact lava tbey were absent, that is, to tbe naked eye. Tbe 
rim of this old crater, although a serious obstacle on tbe side of our 
ascent, is not continuous round the mountain, and is only to be seen 
on the south and soutb-western side. 
After collecting a few specimens of rock from a black-looking 
mass which was probably tbe tbroat of an old vent, we pro- 
ceeded forwards to make tlie ascent of anotker cone of ashes (B C), 
which, from its position, was evidently that wbicb remained of tbe 
eruption succeeding the one wbicb formed the crater we were tben 
leaving. Tbe explosions we had lieard when at a greater distance 
were now more audible, and occurred rapid ly in succession. As we 
neared the top (C), wbicb was about 800 feet above the plain from 
wbicb we started, tbe noise, wbicb was like that of immense jets 
of steam, was sometimes accompanied with a tremulous motion of 
tbe ground. It was not long before we reached tbe rim of the second 
crater (C), which we did to behold a sight defying my powers of 
description. Instead of looking up at a crater, we were looking 
down at one. Standing on tbe rim of crater C, before us there 
was a short descent of loose, black asbes, somewhat steeper tban 
that up wbicb we had climbed, terminating suddenly in perpendicular 
cliffs, which formed an amphitheatre of rocks about half a mile in 
breadth, tbe walls of wbicb, upon tbe opposite side, were about 300 
feet in keiglit. At tbe bottom of this pit, on tbe side nearer to us, 
a small cone, with an orifice of about 50 feet in diameter, was belck- 
ing masses of molten lava to a keiglit more tban double that at 
■wbicb we were Standing. 
