seemingly endless plain, the two craters rise in a bold
silhouette, grimly black. One of them stands in lifeless rigidity,
from the top of the other curl a few light, white clouds of steam. It
is a depressingly dismal sight, without any organic life whatever on
the steep, furrowed slopes.

We camped on a hillock surrounded by shrubs; on all sides spread the
plain, with low hills, rounded by rain and storm, radiating from the
craters, and where these touched, a confused wilderness of hills,
like a black, agitated sea, had formed. The hilltops were bare, on
the slopes there clung some yellowish moss. The farther away from the
craters, the lower the hills became, disappearing at the edge of the
plain in a bluish-green belt of woods.

The sky was cloudy, a sallow light glimmered over the plain, and
the craters lay in forbidding gloom and lifelessness, like hostile
monsters. Hardly had I set up my camera, when the western giant began
his performance. The clouds of steam thickened, detonations followed,
and at each one a brownish-grey cloud rose out of the mountain,
whirled slowly upwards, and joined the grey clouds in the sky. The
mountain-top glowed red, and red lumps of lava came flying out of
the smoke and dropped behind a hill. Then all became quiet again,
the mountain relapsed into lifelessness, the clouds dissolved to a
thick mist, and only the steam curled upward like a white plume.

I had taken care to observe how far the lava flew, so as to know how
near it would be safe to approach. The path towards the craters was
the continuation of the one we had followed, and led to the north
shore of the island, passing between the craters. It is remarkable
that the natives should dare to use this road, and indeed it is not
much travelled; but it speaks for the courage of the first man who
had the courage to cross the plain and pass between the craters. The
sharp points of the lava caused great suffering to the bare-footed
natives, and here I had the advantage of them for once, thanks to my
nailed boots.

The clouds had disappeared, the sky shone deeply blue, everything
reminded me of former trips in other deserts. The same dry air cooled
the heat that radiated from the ground, the same silence and solemnity
brooded over the earth, there was the same colouring and the same
breadth of view. After the painful march through the forest, where
every step had to be measured and watched, it was a joy to step out
freely and take