100 JOURNEY TO THE GEYSERS. 
was tolerably smooth, except that it was marked 
with elevated semicircular lines. At the summit 
of this hillock was a great mass of rock, of nearly 
a conical shape, composed of calcined matter, 
which had evidently been formed from the melt¬ 
ed rejectamenta of a volcano; indeed, this was 
the rim or mouth of one, and elevated about 
ten or twelve feet from the above-mentioned lava. 
On climbing to its summit, we found the edge 
extremely rugged, sharp, and vitrified, having an 
orifice from six to seven feet wide, and gradually 
becoming narrower for a few feet as it descended, 
then widening again, and forming a hole, whose 
depth I was by no means able to ascertain. 
That it did not descend exactly in a vertical di¬ 
rection for any great length of way, was made 
evident by throwing in a stone, * which soon 
struck upon some projecting ledge or bend in 
the pipe. The color of this mass on the out¬ 
side was a deep greyish brown, almost inclining 
to black, and in some places a deep red, con¬ 
siderably darker than the lava it stood upon, 
which appeared to have been exposed to a less 
degree of heat. There was no smoke, nor any 
smell of sulphur to be perceived; nor, to judge 
from the grass that grew in thick tufts some 
way down the crater, had there been any for a 
great length of time. The natives had no tradi¬ 
tion of its having thrown out fire, neither was 
