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MISSIONARY TOUR 
the sunken plain, which in several places sounded hol¬ 
low under our feet, we at length came to the edge of 
the great crater, where a spectacle, sublime and even 
appalling, presented itself before us— 
44 We stopped, and trembled .’ 7 
Astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us 
mute, and, like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, 
with our eyes riveted on the abyss below* Immedi- 
diately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form 
of a crescent, about two miles in length, from north¬ 
east to south-west, nearly a mile in width, and appa¬ 
rently 800 feet deep. The bottom was covered with 
lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were 
one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific 
ebullition, rolling to and fro its “ fiery surge” and 
flaming billows. Fifty-one conical islands, of varied 
form and size, containing so many craters, rose either 
round the edge or from the surface of the burning lake* 
Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke, 
or pyramids of brilliant flame; and several of these 
at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths 
streams of lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down 
their black indented sides into the boiling mass below. 
The existence of these conical craters led us to con¬ 
clude, that the boiling caldron of lava before us did 
not form the focus of the volcano; that this mass of 
melted lava was comparatively shallow; and that the 
basin in which it was contained was separated, by a 
stratum of solid matter, from the great volcanic abyss, 
which constantly poured out its melted contents through 
these numerous craters into this upper reservoir. We 
were further inclined to this opinion, from the vast 
columns of vapour continually ascending from the 
