hich beats any ever charmed by
magical incantations.

In the midst of this ravine, into which so many springs are emptying
themselves, is a little stream, which, starting from the head of the
canon quite cool and pure, receives all their mingled waters, and
gradually increases in heat and abominable taste, until at last it
defies description.

Its stones and the rocks that line its banks, owing probably to the
protection of the cooler water, are tolerably firm in texture, all other
parts of the ravine being burned to a powder which crumbles in the hand,
or, when mixed with water, forms an ooze or clay. Many of these stones
by the sides of this little stream are banded with colors like the
Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior (to compare great things with small),
and probably from the same cause. These beautiful cliffs, the
Schwee-archibi-kung of the Indians, are colored by percolations of
surface-water, by which the coloring matter of various minerals and
acids is brought to the face of the precipice, and it is reasonable to
suppose that the drainage of the mountains behind the Devil's Canon,
sinking to similar beds of minerals, is thrown out by the volcano below
in the shape of steam or mineral springs. It is impossible to drill a
hole two feet deep in the side of the ravine without provoking a little
jet of steam. Now, Daubeny, who is the highest authority on volcanoes,
states that the greater part of their ascending vapor is mere steam, and
that in 'Pantellaria (a volcanic island near Sicily) steam issues from
many parts of this insular mountain, and hot springs gush forth from it
which form together a lake six thousand feet in circumference.'

Similar jets of steam and hot water are observed at St. Lucia, near the
crater Oalibou, where also there is a continual formation of sulphur
from the condensation of the vapors, a phenomenon which is lavishly
displayed in the Devil's Canon, and in fact around most known volcanoes.
The writer observed it fully two miles from the active volcano of
Kilawea, forming a fine sulphur bed, and a body of steam so dense that
rheumatic natives of Hawaii were in the habit of using it as a vapor
bath.

The jets of steam in the canon are of the most curious variety. One,
honored by the name of the 'Devil's Steamboat,' is quite a formidable
affair, high up on the hillside, and puffing uninterruptedly, and so
powerfully that the steam is invisible for at least five feet from the
vent. The gro