hermit-host, and afterwards rode on towards the heights, along a beautiful road among fields of lava.  In half an hour’s time, however, we were completely shut in by lava-fields, and here the beaten track ended.  We now dismounted, and continued our ascent on foot.  It is difficult for one who has not seen it to picture to himself the scene that lay around us.  Devastation every where; lava covering the whole region in heaps upon heaps, fantastically piled one on the other.  Here a huge isolated mound rises, seemingly cut off on all sides from the lava around; there we see how a mighty stream once rushed down the mountain-side, and cooled gradually into stone.  Immense chasms are filled with lava masses, which have lain here for many years cold and motionless, and will probably remain for as many more, for their fury has spent itself.

The lava is of different colours, according as it has been exposed to the atmosphere for a longer or a shorter period.  The oldest lava has the hue of granite, and almost its hardness, for which reasons it is largely used for building houses and paving streets.

From the place where we left our donkeys we had to climb upwards for nearly an hour over the lava before reaching the crater.  The ascent is somewhat fatiguing, as we are obliged to be very careful at every step to avoid entangling our feet among the blocks of lava; still the difficulty is not nearly so great as people make out.  It is merely necessary to wear good thick boots, and then all goes extremely well.  The higher we mount, the more numerous do the fissures become from which smoke bursts forth.  In one of these clefts we placed some eggs, which were completely boiled in four minutes’ time.  Near these places the ground is so hot that we could not have stood still for many minutes; still we did not get burnt feet or any thing of the kind.

On reaching the crater we found ourselves enveloped in so thick a fog that we could not see ten paces in advance.  There was nothing for it but to sit down and wait patiently until the sun could penetrate the mist and spread light and cheerfulness among us.  Then we descended into the crater, and approached as closely as possible to the place from which the smoky column whirls into the air.  The road was a gloomy one, for we were shut in as in a bowl, and could discern around us nothing but mountains of lava, while before us rose the huge smoky column, threatening each moment 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.