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What with their noise, and what with the trembling
of the thin crust of ground, that seems about to open
underneath our feet and plunge us in the burning gulf
below (which is the real danger, if there be any); and
what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the
shower of red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the
choking smoke and sulphur; we may well feel giddy and
irrational, like drunken men. But, we contrive to climb
up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the
Hell of boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling
down; blackened, and singed, and scorched, and hot, and
giddy: and each with his dress alight in half a dozen places.

You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way
of descending, is, by sliding down the ashes: which, form-
ing a gradually increasing ledge below the feet, prevent
too rapid a descent. But, when we have crossed the two
exhausted craters on our way back, and are come to this
precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has foretold) no
vestige of ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth
sheet of ice.

In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cau-
tiously join hands, and make a chain of men; of whom
the foremost beat, as well as they can, a rough track
with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. The
way being fearfully steep, and none of the party: even
of the thirty: being able to keep their feet for six pa-
ces together, the ladies are taken out of their litters, and
placed, each between two careful persons; while others
of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling
forward - a necessary precaution, tending to the imme-

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