we were able to collect, was not ſufficient to prevent us from paſſing a very unpleaſant night.
The day at length began to dawn. We left ſome of our guides with their mules at the place where we had ſpent the night, and proceeded on our journey to the peak, which we were now in haſte to accompliſh.
We continued, for the ſpace of an hour, to travel over large heaps of fragments of a greyiſh coloured lava, amongſt which ſome blocks of pozzolana were ſcattered, as alſo huge maſſes of a very compact blackiſh glaſs, which bore a great reſemblance to the coarſe glaſs of bottles. This glaſs, though formed in the vaſt crucibles of the mountains at the time of their combuſtion, might become very uſeful in the arts; for being already completely manufactured by the hand of nature, it would only require to be expoſed to the action of the fire in order to fuſe it anew, and render it ſuſceptible of being moulded into all the forms that the hand of man is able to give to it.
We arrived at the mouth of a cavern called la queve del ana, the orifice of which is full four feet and a half in diameter. As its cavity runs for a length of more than ſix feet in an almoſt horizontal direction, we were not able to reach the bottom otherwiſe than by deſcending into it with the help of a rope. We found that it contained
water,
