APPALLING SPECTACLE. 237 
ground, connected with the action of the adjacent 
volcano. After walking some distance over the 
sunken plain, which in several places sounded 
hollow under our feet, we at length came to the 
edge of the great crater, where a spectacle, 
sublime and even appalling, presented itself be¬ 
fore us— 
“ We stopped, and trembled.” 
Astonishment and awe for some moments ren¬ 
dered us mute, and, like statues, we stood fixed to 
the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. 
Immediately 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 apparently eight hundred 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 ebul¬ 
lition, rolling to and fro its “ fiery surge” and 
flaming billows. Fifty-one conical islands, of 
varied form and size, containing as 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 
conclude, that the boiling caldron of lava before 
us did not fornx the focus of the volcano ; that this 
mass of meltea 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 
