ry revolution. I was anxious to learn, if these trunks had
any taste of sulphur; but neither the wood, the dust enclosed in the
heart of the trees, nor the calcined stones, had either taste or smell.

At some distance, we found the mountains of a prodigious height,
appearing as if they were piled one above another. The rocks, which were
detached, had formed, by their crumbling down, as it were precipices.
Others, suspended in the air, threatened to crush in pieces the
traveller below. Others, again, in their striking one upon another, by
receiving in their shock, slimy earth, which hurled down continually,
formed frightful caverns. The surrounding valleys were filled with
rocks, which appeared to rise one above another, and produced new
masses, not less frightful. To conclude, it appeared like a long range
of mountains, from which pieces of a great size were frequently falling,
which were reduced to dust, before they reached the ground.

From another side issued two fountains, one of which drew along with it,
in its course, a black slimy stuff, which occasioned a sulphurous
smell. The other, separated from the first, by a small isthmus of sand,
from twelve to fifteen paces broad, is clearer than crystal. The taste
of these waters is pretty agreeable; the bottom of their bed is filled
with small stones of various colours, which presented to the eye a
delightful prospect.

It was in the same place I observed a singularity, which I submit to the
understanding of my readers. In a valley, which appeared at first sight,
to be very much circumscribed by the number of surrounding mountains,
across threatening vaults, formed by the falling of different rocks,
heaped upon one another, I discovered an immense region, which
astonished me by the variety which it presented to our view. At the
first entrance of this valley, the ground is moist and furrowed, as if
rivulets had formerly winded through it. The borders of these furrows
were covered with many beds, and thickly spread over with a nitrous kind
of ice. The rocks, which served to enclose them, were covered with the
same, and had a near resemblance to cascades. The thick reddish roots,
and the branches, covered with leaves, like those of the laurel tree,
crept across the different crevices. At a greater distance, on advancing
towards the west, we saw pyramids of great stones, as white as
alabaster, towering one above another, which seemed to indicate the
border of a bank, and