has
seen the island of St. Helena will at once recognize it as the same
phenomenon which is famous in the 'Hangings,' the blasted precipice by
the side of Longwood Farm, overhanging the valley which Napoleon chose
for his last resting place. This striking similarity is all the more
worthy of note from its occurring there in a purely volcanic island,
every inch of which is decomposed or crumbling lava or lava rock. At the
'Hangings' the soil has the appearance of having been slowly roasted,
long after the central fires which produced the island had lost their
energy.

Descending the mountain we find ourselves on the brink of a precipice,
overhanging a turbulent stream about two hundred feet below, and facing
the ravine or canon, which contains these wonders, and which is smoking
incessantly throughout its entire length.

Just at this commanding point a hotel has been erected, from the portico
of which in the early morning we can watch the grand columns of vapor
opposite, before they are shorn of a portion of their splendor by the
rising sun.

It is possible to walk the entire length of the ravine, surrounded by
jets of steam, and little bubbling springs of mineral water; some
hissing, some sputtering, others roaring, and others shrieking; the
ground being soft and hot, your stick sinking into the clayey ooze, and
a puff of spiteful steam following it as withdrawn; your shoes white or
yellow, as you tread the chalk or the sulphur banks, and your feet
burning with the hot breath of the sulphur blasts below.

If you are not stifled by the sulphur fumes above, be thankful; and when
at last you reach the 'Mountain of Fire' at the head of the ravine, and
look back upon the perils of your upward journey, you think of poor
Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Bunyan in his dreams
never imagined a more horrible place.

It is a vale of wonders--Nature's laboratory, where chemistry is to be
studied. The name and number of the springs is 'legion,' Hot Sulphur,
Warm Sulphur, Blue Sulphur, White Sulphur, Alum, Salt, and nobody knows
all the mineral compounds. You may stand with one foot in a cold bath
and another in a hot one--if you can. With one hand you may dip up alum
water, as bitter and pure as chemistry can compound it, and with the
other sulphur water, that shall sicken your very soul. If you have
rheumatism, bathe in the splendid sulphur baths or the Indian Spring; if
your eyes are weak, use the eye-water, w