50 
ST. HELENA. 
obtained from the somewhat perilous summit of the mass of rock 
called Lot, where the spectator, elevated nearly 1500 feet, on a pin- 
nacle almost in the very centre of the huge bowl, obtains an unin- 
tercepted view of the whole. The ascent of Lot is a tedious climb, 
but well repays the labour bestowed upon it. 
At the foot of the almost perpendicular fall from the crater’s 
edge, the ground begins to slope more gradually, but very irre- 
gularly, down towards the sea. The formation, as we proceed 
towards the floor of the crater, becomes unstratified and confused, 
and is intersected by numerous dikes, vai'ying in thickness from a 
couple of inches to a hundred feet or more. As the centre of the 
crater near Sandy Bay Beach is approached, these dikes increase in 
number, sometimes lying closely side by side, even also crossing 
each other at right angles, and varying in composition just as much 
as in their outward form and colour. They soon appear numberless, 
and are so complete that scarcely a fault or displacement of the 
adjacent ground can be traced ; they have much the appearance of 
brick or stone walls running up and down and across the crater 
sides in all directions, even extending out to sea like so many well 
built landing-piers. Of some of the largest of these dikes, three or 
four are very remarkable features in the structure of the Island, 
striking, as they do, in parallel lines from the north-east to the 
south-west right across the crater ; and, when viewed from its 
edge, much resembling the trail of some great serpent or monster 
which had wended its way across it. Some of them testify strongly 
to the amount of disintegration and denudation that has, through 
long ages, been in progress on the surface of the Island. One 
especially of them, which may be traced for four miles or more, 
being formed of a fine hard crystalline felspathic greystone, much 
harder than the surrounding rocks, has worn away much less 
rapidly than the adjacent ground, and left huge monolithic columnar 
remains of itself at intervals throughout its length. One of these 
great piles of rock has just been mentioned as bearing the name of 
Lot. It stands almost in the middle of the now remaining portion 
of the crater, at an elevation of 1444 feet above the sea, having a 
base 100 feet in thickness, and an altitude of 290 feet. A second, 
called Lot’s Wife, stands about a mile and a half further to the 
south-west, elevated 1550 feet above the sea, with an altitude of 
560 feet, its upper portion being considerably larger than the base 
