edge of a broad and deep chasm, from which issued a particularly
dense vapor. Apparently we were on the brink of a crater, but the
thick fumes of the disagreeable vapor made it impossible for us to
guess at the breadth of the fissure. The absolute top of the volcano
consisted of a ridge, nearly ten feet thick, of solid masses of stone
covered with a crust of lava bleached by the action of the escaping
gas. Several irregular blocks of stone lying about us showed that the
peak had once been a little higher. When, now and again, the gusts
of wind made rifts in the vapor, we perceived on the northern corner
of the plateau several rocky columns at least a hundred feet high,
which had hitherto withstood both storm and eruption. I afterwards
had an opportunity of observing the summit from Daraga with a capital
telescope on a very clear day, when I noticed that the northern side
of the crater was considerably higher than its southern edge.

[The descent.] Our descent took some time. We had still two-thirds
of it beneath us when night overtook us. In the hope of reaching
the hut where we had left our provisions, we wandered about till
eleven o'clock, hungry and weary, and at last were obliged to wait
for daylight. This misfortune was owing not to our want of proper
precaution, but to the unreliability of the carriers. Two of them,
whom we had taken with us to carry water and refreshments, had
disappeared at the very first; and a third, "a very trustworthy
man," whom we had left to take care of our things at the hut, and
who had been ordered to meet us at dusk with torches, had bolted,
as I afterwards discovered, back to Daraga before noon. My servant,
too, who was carrying a woolen blanket and an umbrella for me,
suddenly vanished in the darkness as soon as it began to rain, and
though I repeatedly called him, never turned up again till the next
morning. We passed the wet night upon the bare rocks, where, as our