ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
we obtained this lovely panorama was 2,200 feet — or 
no more than 100 feet higher than our camp. 
We travelled again that same day on the northern 
edge of the great depression, and met three more cuvettes 
of grey ashes with an abundant central growth of buritys. 
These were at a general elevation of 2,300 feet, the bottom 
of the depression being fifty feet lower. On descending 
from the tableland, through a gap we discerned far away 
to the south a long, flat-topped plateau extending from 
southwest to northeast and having a precipitous wall-face. 
We got down to the Caxoeirinha stream, where we 
found an abandoned hut in the eroded hollow of the 
stream. The water flowed there over a bed of red lava 
and extremely hard, conglomerate rock made up of lava 
pebbles and solidified ashes. Above this at the sides of 
the stream was a stratum some ten feet thick of grey 
ashes, and above it a stratum two feet thick of red volcanic 
dust and sand. 
As we got higher again and I stood on a projecting 
promontory, another wonderful view spread itself before 
me. The sun, nearly setting, in glorious white radiations, 
cast deep blue and violet-coloured shadows upon the great 
abyss to my right (northwest) which was a kilometre or 
more in diameter and more than 300 feet deep—surely 
another great crater. It seemed as if a natural wall of 
rock must have once existed, joining the promontory on 
which I stood to the great mass of prismatic, red, volcanic 
rock to the west of us, and ending in a flat triangle with 
a wide base. The surface soil on the height of the 
peninsula was of spattered lava and black, broiled rock 
and pellets. 
The bottom of the abyss formed two sweeping undula¬ 
tions — the second from the centre much higher than the 
first — seemingly a great wave of lava vomited by the 
crater, by which probably the destruction of the wall 
joining the peninsula had been caused. 
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