to shroud us in
darkness as the wind blew it in clouds in our direction. When the
ground was struck with a stick, it gave forth a hollow rumbling
sound like at Solfatara. In the neighbourhood of the column of
smoke we could see nothing more than at the edge from which we had
climbed downwards--a peculiar picture of unparalleled devastation.
The circumference of the crater seems not to have changed since the
visit of Herr Lewald, who a few years ago estimated its dimensions
at 5000 feet. After once more mounting to the brim, we walked round
a great part of the edge of the basin.

At the particular desire of Herr M., who was well acquainted with
all the remarkable points about the volcano, our guide now led the
way to the so-called "hell," a little crater which formed itself it
in the year 1834. To reach it we had to climb about over fields of
lava for half an hour. The aspect of this hell did not strike me as
particularly grand. An uneven wall of lava suddenly rose fifteen
paces in advance of us, with whole strata of pure sulphur and other
beautifully-coloured substances depending from its projecting
angles. One of these substances was of a snowy-white colour, light,
and very porous. I took a piece with me, but the next day on
proceeding to pack it carefully, I found that above half had melted
and become quite soft and damp, so that I was compelled to throw the
whole away. The same thing happened to a mass of a red colour that
I had brought away with me, and which had a beautiful effect, like
glowing lava, clinging to the fissures and sides of the rocks. We
held pieces of paper to the fissures in this wall, and they
immediately became ignited. Herr M. then threw in a cigar, which
also burst into a flame. The heat proceeding from these clefts was
so great, that we could not bear to hold our hands there for an
instant. At one place, near a fissure, we laid our ears to the
ground, and could hear a rushing bubbling sound as though water was
boiling beneath us. There was really much to see in this hell,
without the discomfort of being enveloped in the offensive
sulphurous smoke of the chief crater.

After staying for several hours in and about the crater we left it,
and returned by the steep way over the cone of cinders. The descent
here is almost perpendicular, and we could hardly escape with whole
skins if it were not for the fact that we sink ankle-deep into sand
and cinders at every step.

To avoid fa