s, with an occasional nose-stick; the only conspicuous
feature are ear-rings of tortoise-shell, of which as many as a dozen
may hang in one ear.

On the other side of Tanna is Lenakel, where the Rev. W. was working
with admirable devotion and success in a hospital. I crossed the
island several times, and enjoyed the delightful rides through the
shady forest, on very good bridle-paths the natives had made.

Tanna's most striking sight is its volcano; there is hardly another
in the world so easily accessible; for in half an hour from the
shore its foot may be reached, and in another half-hour one is at
the top. It is about 260 m. high, a miniature volcano, with all its
accessories complete, hot springs, lake, desert, etc., always active,
rarely destructive, looking like an overgrown molehill. A wide plain
stretches inland, utterly deserted owing to the poisonous vapours
always carried across it by the south-east trade-wind, and in the
centre of the plain is a sweet-water lake.

I climbed the volcano for the first time on a rainy day. On top, I
suddenly found myself at the end of the world; it was the edge of the
crater, completely filled with steam. As I walked along the precipice,
such an infernal thundering began just under my feet as it seemed,
that I thought best to retire. My next ascent took place on a clear,
bright day; but the wind drove sand and ashes along the desert,
and dimmed the sunshine to a yellowish gloomy light. I traversed the
desert to the foot of the crater, where the cone rose gradually out
of brownish sand, in a beautiful curve, to an angle of 45 deg.. The lack
of all vegetation or other point of comparison made it impossible
to judge whether the mountain was 100 or 1000 m. high. The silence
was oppressive, and sand columns danced and whirled up and down,
to and fro, like goblins. A smell of sulphur was in the air, the
heat was torturing, the ground burnt one's feet, and the climb in
the loose sand was trying. But farther up the sea-breeze cooled the
air deliciously, and stone blocks afforded a foothold. Soon I was on
top, and the sight I saw seemed one that only the fancy of a morbid,
melancholy genius could have invented, an ugly fever dream turned real,
and no description could do it justice.

In front of me the ground fell down steeply, and the torn sides of
the crater formed a funnel-shaped cavity, a dark, yawning depth. There
were jagged rocks, fantastic, wild ridges, crevices, fearful dep