yes were not over-conscientious, that the consumption
of alcohol was enormous, and finally the whole affair was given up,
after large quantities of machinery had been brought out, which I saw
rusting away near the shore. In this way numerous enterprises have
been started and abandoned of late years, especially in Noumea. It
is probably due to this mining scheme that the natives here have
practically disappeared; I found one man who had once carried sulphur
from the mine, and he was willing to guide me up the volcano.

There are always clouds hanging round the top of the mountain, and the
forest is swampy; but on the old road we advanced quite rapidly, and
soon found ourselves on the edge of a plateau, from which two streams
fell down in grand cascades, close together, their silver ribbons
gleaming brightly in the dark woods. One river was milk-white with
sulphur precipitate, the other had red water, probably owing to iron
deposits. The water was warm, and grew still warmer the farther up we
followed the river. Suddenly we came upon a bare slope, over certain
spots of which steam-clouds hung, while penetrating fumes irritated
one's eyes and nose. We had come to the lower margin of the sulphur
springs, and the path led directly across the sulphur rocks. Mounting
higher, we heard the hissing of steam more distinctly, and soon we
were in the midst of numerous hillocks with bright yellow tops, and
steam hissing and whistling as it shot out of cracks, to condense in
the air into a white cloud. The whole ground seemed furrowed with
channels and crevasses, beneath which one heard mysterious noises;
one's step sounded hollow, and at our side ran a dark stream, which
carried the hot sulphur water to the shore. Great boulders lay about,
some of them so balanced that a slight touch sent them rolling into the
depths, where they broke into atoms. Sometimes we were surrounded by a
thick cloud, until a breeze carried it away, and we had a clear view
over the hot, dark desert, up to the mountain-top. It was uncanny in
the midst of those viciously hissing hillocks, and I could not blame my
boys for turning green with fear and wishing to go home. But we went on
to a place where water boiled in black pools, sometimes quietly, then
with a sudden high jump; some of the water was black, some yellowish,
and everything around was covered with sulphur as if with hoar-frost.

We followed the course of a creek whose water was so hot as to scald
o