"Sandal-wood and strawberries grow all about here--and fleas, too!
wicked fleas, that bite voraciously, to keep themselves warm, I
think, for here, so far from Pele's hearth, it is cold, and we sit
by a log fire of our own.
"The day after our arrival we went into the crater, starting
immediately after an early breakfast. There is but one entrance,
a narrow ledge, formed by the gradual crumbling and falling in of
the precipice. Along this ledge we slipped and scrambled, making
the descent on foot--for no ridden animal has ever been able to
descend the trail. Holding on to bushes and snags when the path
was dangerously steep, we finally landed below on the black satin
floor of lava.
"Satin! What had looked so smooth and tempting from a thousand
feet above, turned out to be a surface more troubled and uneven
than the ocean in the most violent storm. And that tiny thread
of smoke, toward which our faces were set, lay three miles
distant--three miles that were worse than nine on an ordinary
road.
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