THE ASCENT OF MOUNT EREBUS.
incrustations of sulphur, but internally they were of a resinous brown colour. A shout of joy and surprise broke from the leading files, when a little after 10 a.m., the edge of the active crater was at last reached. We had travelled only about two and a half miles from our camp, and had ascended just 2,000 feet, and yet this had taken us, with a few short halts, just four hours.
The scene that now suddenly burst upon us was magnificent and awe-inspiring. We stood on the verge of a vast abyss, and at first could neither see to the bottom, nor across it, on account of the huge mass of steam filling the crater, and soaring aloft in a column 500 to 1,000 feet high. After a continuous loud hissing sound, lasting for some minutes, there would come from below a big dull boom, and immediately afterwards a great globular mass of steam would rush upwards to swell the volume of the snow-white cloud which ever sways over the crater. These phenomena recurred at intervals of a few minutes during the whole of our stay at the crater. Meanwhile the whole of the air around us was extremely redolent of burning sulphur.
Presently a gentle northerly breeze fanned away the steam cloud and at once the whole crater stood
