EXTINCT CRATERS. 
97 
and there was therefore no surf to hinder our embark¬ 
ing. We made a quick passage to the ship, and having 
“ an imposition of sleep upon us,” we turned in for 
five hours until breakfast time. 
Going on deck again, we found the wind still off 
the land, bringing down with it blasts of air that had 
become chilled by passing over the frozen mountain¬ 
sides to windward of us. High above us rose the 
icy peak of Beerenberg, as stately a mountain as ever 
eye gazed upon; its pointed crest, robed with snow, 
towered above the clouds that cling around it in 
wreaths of vapour. The water under the steep shore 
was comparatively calm ; we therefore took a boat's 
crew and landed again, leaving two of the men to look 
after our boat in our absence. 
The soil formed by the washing away of the moun¬ 
tains was heaped up in the neighbourhood of the sea 
into rich plains, and its richness surprised us. There 
are two craters marked upon the chart, which at no 
distant period gave out flames and lava. With difficulty 
we made our way over the black soil and rugged 
ridges which opposed themselves to our progress, and, 
ascending an eminence, we looked towards the sea on 
the opposite coast, and the craters coming within our 
range, we at once turned our steps in their direction. The 
place has greatly changed since Scoresby described it. 
