east
and south-east sides. In the bottom was water with trees all round its
edge. There were four square holes from which boiling water gurgled like
feeble geysers, and three more holes of a more irregular shape.

The hill range on which we stood projected well into the centre of the
great circular basin. It had on the west side perfectly vertical walls of
black igneous rock. Its summit was chiefly formed of ferruginous erupted
rock thrown up while in a state of ebullition, which had cooled into a
conglomerate of minute globular masses, in shape like the bubbles of
boiling water. The great circle around us, as we stood on the outermost
point of the projecting spur, was most impressive, with its brilliantly
coloured red walls.

My men killed a _coati_--a peculiar, long-nosed carnivorous animal, which
had characteristics in common with dogs, monkeys, and pigs. There were
two kinds of _coati_ or _guati_, viz. the _coati de mundeo_ (_Nasua
solitaria_), and the _coati de bando_ (_Nasua socialis_). Ours was a
_Nasua solitaria_. It was a beautiful little animal, about the size of a
small cat, with a wonderfully soft brown coat on its back, a yellowish
red belly and bright yellow chest and throat. The chin was as white as
snow. The long tail, 11/2 ft. long--was in black and yellow rings. It
possessed powerful fangs on both the upper and lower jaws, a long, black,
gritty or granular tongue, short ears, powerful short fore-paws with long
nails--quite dog-like; long thighs extremely strong, short hips and hind
legs, with callosity up to the knee--evidently to allow that part of the
leg to rest flat upon the ground. The _coati_ had velvety black eyes of
great beauty, well set in its small well-shaped head. It was a wild
little fellow, extremely agile, and could kill a dog much larger than
itself with comparative ease.

We circled the eastern and northern part of the great cauldron, always
remaining on the summit of the plateau at elevations varying from 2,250
to 2,300 ft. We came upon patches of violet-coloured and then
tobacco-coloured sand, and also upon quantities of dark brown sand,
generally consolidated into easily friable rock. There were the usual
deposits of grey ashes over the underlying volcanic rock which peeped
through here and there.

On June 4th we were at the Cabeceira Koiteh (temperature, min. 53 deg. Fahr.;
max. 80 deg. Fahr.; elev. 2,100 ft.). Close to this camp, from an
outstretching spur, I obtained another