Looking Inland, The Volcano Of Tarumai, With A Bare Grey Top And A
Blasted Forest On Its Sides, Occupies The Right Of The Picture.
To
the left and inland are mountains within mountains, tumbled
together in most picturesque confusion, densely covered with forest
and cleft by magnificent ravines, here and there opening out into
narrow valleys.
The whole of the interior is jungle penetrable for
a few miles by shallow and rapid rivers, and by nearly smothered
trails made by the Ainos in search of game. The general lie of the
country made me very anxious to find out whether a much-broken
ridge lying among the mountains is or is not a series of tufa cones
of ancient date; and, applying for a good horse and Aino guide on
horseback, I left Ito to amuse himself, and spent much of a most
splendid day in investigations and in attempting to get round the
back of the volcano and up its inland side. There is a great deal
to see and learn there. Oh that I had strength! After hours of
most tedious and exhausting work I reached a point where there were
several great fissures emitting smoke and steam, with occasional
subterranean detonations. These were on the side of a small, flank
crack which was smoking heavily. There was light pumice
everywhere, but nothing like recent lava or scoriae. One fissure
was completely lined with exquisite, acicular crystals of sulphur,
which perished with a touch. Lower down there were two hot springs
with a deposit of sulphur round their margins, and bubbles of gas,
which, from its strong, garlicky smell, I suppose to be
sulphuretted hydrogen. Farther progress in that direction was
impossible without a force of pioneers. I put my arm down several
deep crevices which were at an altitude of only about 500 feet, and
had to withdraw it at once, owing to the great heat, in which some
beautiful specimens of tropical ferns were growing. At the same
height I came to a hot spring - hot enough to burst one of my
thermometers, which was graduated above the boiling point of
Fahrenheit; and tying up an egg in a pocket-handkerchief and
holding it by a stick in the water, it was hard boiled in 8.5
minutes. The water evaporated without leaving a trace of deposit
on the handkerchief, and there was no crust round its margin. It
boiled and bubbled with great force.
Three hours more of exhausting toil, which almost knocked up the
horses, brought us to the apparent ridge, and I was delighted to
find that it consisted of a lateral range of tufa cones, which I
estimate as being from 200 to 350, or even 400 feet high. They are
densely covered with trees of considerable age, and a rich deposit
of mould; but their conical form is still admirably defined. An
hour of very severe work, and energetic use of the knife on the
part of the Aino, took me to the top of one of these through a mass
of entangled and gigantic vegetation, and I was amply repaid by
finding a deep, well-defined crateriform cavity of great depth,
with its sides richly clothed with vegetation, closely resembling
some of the old cones in the island of Kauai.
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