DANGEROUS IMPEDIMENTS. 259 
the pieces we knocked off for specimens. On 
one side lay a gulf of unfathomable depth, on 
the other an inaccessible pile of ruins, and im¬ 
mediately in front an oppressive and deadly 
vapour. While hesitating what to do, we per¬ 
ceived the smoke to be swept round occasionally, 
by an eddy of the air,, in a direction opposite to 
that in which it most of the time ascended; and, 
watching an opportunity when our way was thus 
made clear, we held our breath, and ran as rapidly 
as the dangerous character of the path would 
permit, till we had gained a place beyond its 
ordinary course. We here, unexpectedly, found 
ourselves also delivered from the other impedi¬ 
ment to our progress; for the chasm abruptly ran 
off in a direction far from that we wished to pur¬ 
sue. Our escape from the vapour, however, was 
that which we considered the most important; and 
so great was our impression of the danger to which 
we had been exposed from it, that when we saw 
our way to the opposite side open, without any 
special obstacle before us, we felt disposed formally 
to return thanks to Almighty God for our de¬ 
liverance. But before this was proposed, all our 
number, except Lord Byron, Mr. Davis, and 
myself, had gone forward so far as to be out of 
call; and, fpr the time, the external adoration of 
the Creator, from the midst of one of the most 
terrible of his works, was reluctantly waived, 
“ At an inconsiderable distance from us, was one 
of the largest of the conical craters, whose labo¬ 
rious action had so greatly impressed our minds 
during the night, and we hastened to a nearer ex¬ 
amination of it. On reaching its base, we judged 
it to be one hundred and fifty feet high, a huge, 
irregularly shapen. inverted funnel of lava, covered 
s 2 
