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extends on all sides to the distance of about eight miles. In the centre of this circle the great crater of the mountain rears its burning head; and the regions of intense cold and of intense heat seem for ever to be united in the same point.—On the north side of the snowy region, they assure us, there are several small lakes that are never thawed; and that in many places, the snow, mixed with the ashes and salts of the mountain, is accumulated to a vast depth.
We had now time to examine a fourth region of the wonderful mountain, very different indeed, from the others, and productive of very different sensations: but which has, undoubtedly, given being to all the rest; I mean the region of fire.
The present crater of this immense volcano is a circle of about three miles and a half in circumference. It goes shelving down on each side and forms a regular hollow like a vast amphitheatre. From many places of this space, issue volumes of sulphureous smoke, which, being much heavier than the circumambient air, instead of rising in it, as smoke generally does, immediately on its getting out of the crater, rolls down the side of the mountain like a torrent, till coming to that part of the atmosphere of the same specific gravity with itself, it shoots off horizontally, and forms a large track in the air, according to the direction of the wind; which happily for us, carried it exactly to the side opposite to that where we were placed. The crater is so hot, that it is very dangerous, if not impossible to go down it; besides, the smoke is very incommodious, and in many places, the surface is so soft, that there have been incidences of people sinking down in it, and paying for their temerity with their lives. Near the centre of the crater is the great mouth of the volcano When we reflect on the immensity of its depth, the vast cells and caverns whence so many lavas have issued; the force of its internal fire, to raise up those lavas to so
