In the Volcanic Region 143 
of the question; a remedy had to be found somehow. There 
was nothing for it but to dig out a rough terrace and build some 
kind of platform for the tents. This we did, but it must be 
confessed that they stood quite crooked and unsteady, and it 
required some art to keep ones equilibrium, or even, in fact, to 
sleep in them, for the bedsteads glided down the slanting 
surface, and in the morning several of our company found them¬ 
selves in quite different places from where they had been when 
they laid down to rest. 
Next morning a new difficulty arose. There was no water. 
We sent out a scouting party, but it returned at noonday having- 
met with no success. As, however, water was an absolute 
necessity for the carriers, and as it was certain that conditions 
would not improve as we got nearer the summit, we had no 
other choice but to conclude the day as inactively as we had 
commenced it. We remained in camp and sent all the carriers 
back with their calabashes to the watercourse at the foot of the 
mountain, so as to establish a kind of depot in case we did not 
find any water on our way to the summit. The carriers set off 
discontentedly on their toilsome descent, and it was growing 
dusk before they returned with their filled vessels. 
From our camp we had a splendid view of Ninagongo, whose 
peak rose up imposingly from a sea of cloud. Down below, the 
cloud masses, driven by the air currents, chased over the plain. 
Above these the outlines of the mountains stood out sharply 
defined in the rays: of the sinking sun, which bathed the sur¬ 
rounding scenery in most wonderful tones of colour, almost like 
the northern lights. I sadly regretted the absence of a painter 
in our party, for the scene would have formed a subject worthy 
of an artist’s greatest skill. 
The air grew icy cold as night fell. A violent breeze sprang 
up and gave our unprotected tents such a shaking that Grauer, 
for one, capsized with his bed whilst reposing in his “ Tower of 
Pisa ’’"like tent. The poor fellow crept out of the entrance 
shivering with cold and calling for assistance. Dense layers 
of fog crept across the mountain slope and swept over our heads. 
