A TRAGEDY SUGGESTED 
cloud ended on all sides exactly where the trees ended, as 
sharply as if it had been cut with a knife. It looked 
exactly like a rectangular canopy over the luxuriant 
vegetation. This appearance was intensified by undula¬ 
tions in the lower part of the cloud, like festoons. 
In proceeding across the immense circular cuvette I 
found that the central line of thick vegetation formed 
an angle. A streamlet of delicious, crystal-like water 
emerged from among the trees. On its bank lay the 
skeletons of three mules, suggesting a tragedy. 
On leaving the great cuvette we rose again to the top 
of the plateau, 2,550 feet above sea level. On descending 
from a large dome to the west over red volcanic sand and 
red earth, half consolidated into rock easily friable under 
slight pressure, we once more travelled across immense 
campos in a depression of fine cinders and earth, extend¬ 
ing from north to south, at an elevation of 2,400 feet. 
We further traversed two other less important depres¬ 
sions, the deepest being at an elevation of 2,350 feet. 
The jutting headlands of the plateau on which we had 
travelled were all most precipitous, nearly vertical, and of 
solid, dark red, volcanic rock. 
A magnificent view next confronted us to the south. 
A huge, black, square block with a crater was before us, 
and there appeared what seemed to me to be the remain¬ 
ing sections of a huge volcanic vent and several smaller 
funnels. The lower lip of the crater formed a terrace. 
Then another wider crater could be perceived in a circular 
hollow of the spur of the plateau on which we had 
travelled, and which stretched out into the underlying 
plain. That spur extended from northeast to southwest, 
and in it two circular hollows of great size could be noticed, 
the sides of which were deeply fluted. 
During the entire march that day we had seen quanti¬ 
ties of violet-coloured deposits made up of tiny crystals, 
carbonized and pulverized rock, and ferruginous dust. 
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