ano amongst
those mountains up which he was ascending; and it was the lava which had
produced that desolation, and which, cold and hardened, formed the soil
whereon he walked. It was now past midday; and he seated himself once
more to repose his limbs, wearied with the fatigues of the ascent and
overcome by the heat that was there intolerable. At the distance of
about two hundred yards on his right was a solitary tree, standing like
a sign to mark the tomb of nature's vegetation. Upon this tree his eyes
were fixed listlessly, and he was marveling within himself how that
single scion of the forest could have been spared, when the burning
lava, whenever the eruption might have taken place, had hurled down and
reduced to cinders its verdant brethren.

Suddenly his attention was more earnestly riveted upon the dense and
wide-spreading foliage of that tree; for the boughs were shaken in an
extraordinary manner, and something appeared to be moving about amongst
the canopy of leaves. In another minute a long, unmistakable, appalling
object darted forth--a monstrous snake--suspending itself by the tail to
one of the lower boughs, and disporting playfully with its hideous head
toward the ground. Then, with a sudden coil, it drew itself back into
the tree, the entire foliage of which was shaken with the horrible
gambolings of the reptile.

Wagner remembered the frightful spectacle which he had beholden in
Ceylon, and an awful shudder crept through his frame; for, although he
knew that he bore a charmed life, yet he shrank with a loathing from the
idea of having to battle with such a horrible serpent. Starting from the
ground, he rushed--flew, rather than ran, higher up the acclivity, and
speedily entered on a wild scene of rugged and barren rocks: but he
cared not whither the windings of the natural path which he now pursued
might lead him, since he had escaped from the view of the hideous
boa-constrictor gamboling in the solitary tree.

Wearied with his wanderings, and sinking beneath the oppressive heat of
the sun, Wagner was rejoiced to find a cavern in the side of a rock,
where he might shelter and repose himself. He entered, and lay down upon
the hard soil; the sounds of the torrents, which rolled still unseen
amidst the chasms toward which he had approached full near, produced a
lulling influence upon him, and in a few minutes his eyes were sealed in
slumber. When he awoke he found himself in total darkness. He started
u