red feet high, between which the Pelican ran slowly with bad
water and wormy trout, though there was no lack of wholesome springs on
the hill.

Mr. C. and Mr. T. went off with Jack, and Mr. K. with Jump, to camp out
and hunt early. The night was clear, the thermometer down to 24 deg.
Fahrenheit, and the ice thick on the pails when we rose. One of our
parties came in with six deer: the captain and Mr. C. remained out. The
camp was pleasant enough to an idling observer like myself, but it was
not so agreeable to find the mountain-side, where Mr. T. and I were
looking for game, alive with mosquitos. I lit on a place where the bears
had been engaged in some rough-and-tumble games: the ground was strewed
with what the lad who was with us asserted to be bears' hair. It looked
like the wreck of a thousand chignons, and proved, on inspection, to be
a kind of tawny-colored moss!

All night long, at brief intervals, our mules were scared by a dull,
distant noise like a musket-shot. A soldier told me it was a mud volcano
which he had seen the day we arrived. I then found it marked on Hayden's
map, but learned that it had not been seen by him, and was only so
located on information received from hunters. On the morning of August
1st I persuaded the major to walk over and look for the volcano. We
crossed the valley, and, guided by the frequent explosions, climbed the
hills to the east, and, descending on the far side, came into a small
valley full of sluggish, ill-smelling rills, among which we found the
remarkable crater, which, as it has not been hitherto examined by any
save hunters, I shall describe at some length.

A gradual rising ground made up of soft sulphureous and calcareous earth
was crowned by a more abrupt rise some thirty-five feet high, composed
of tough gray clay. This was pierced by a cone of regular form about
thirty feet across at top and five feet at the bottom. On the west,
about one-third of the circumference was wanting from a point six feet
above the lowest level, thus enabling one to be at a distance or to
stand close by, and yet see to the bottom of the pit. The ground all
around and the shrubs and trees were dotted thick with flakes of dry
mud, which gave, at a distance, a curious stippled look to the
mud-spattered surfaces. As I stood watching the volcano I could see
through the clouds of steam it steadily emitted that the bottom was full
of dark gray clay mud, thicker than a good mush, and that, appar