JOURNEY TO THE GEYSERS. 99 
black pieces of rock, of an enormous size, co¬ 
vered the bottom, and similar ones hung sus^ 
pended from the roof, which seemed to threaten 
every minute to add to the number of those 
below. We climbed over the heap upon the 
ground, and groped our way, till we almost 
lost sight of the light at the entrance. Dark¬ 
ness prevented our proceeding further, and the 
coldness of the place, and dampness owing to 
the constant dripping from the roof, made us 
glad to return to the open air. We looked into 
two or three other caves, but they presented 
nothing particularly interesting, being mostly bar¬ 
ren of all vegetation and dark. At the mouth 
of one I found a miserable specimen of Andro¬ 
meda hypnoides , and a few plants of Pyrola mi¬ 
nor. Our female guide now took leave of us, 
after having given us directions for our route, 
which lay almost entirely among broken lava. 
Egclosen soon told us that we were approaching 
the crater of a volcano, and recommended to us 
to leave our horses, as it would not be easy to ap¬ 
proach it with them, and walk to the spot. We 
quitted a somewhat level tract of fragments of 
lava, heaped one upon the other, and came on a 
gently rising eminence of no great elevation, but 
composed of lava, cracked into innumerable 
pieces, which were still lying in their original 
bed, and not at all scattered about: the surface 
