For two or three minutes
we kept going to the edge, seeing the spectacle as with a flash,
through half closed eyes, and going back again; but a few trials, in
which throats, nostrils, and eyes were irritated to torture by the
acid gases, convinced us that it was unsafe to attempt to remain by
the lake, as the pain and gasping for breath which followed each
inhalation, threatened serious consequences.
With regard to the north lake we were more fortunate, and more
persevering, and I regard the three hours we spent by it as
containing some of the most solemn, as well as most fascinating,
experiences of my life. The aspect of the volcano had altogether
changed within four months. At present there are two lakes
surrounded by precipices about eighty feet high. Owing to the smoke
and confusion, it is most difficult to estimate their size even
approximately, but I think that the diameter of the two cannot be
less than a fifth of a mile.
Within the pit or lake by which we spent the morning, there were no
fiery fountains, or regular plashings of fiery waves playing in
indescribable beauty in a faint blue atmosphere, but lurid, gory,
molten, raging, sulphurous, tormented masses of matter, half seen
through masses as restless, of lurid smoke.
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