n May 15th we were travelling along a valley over which must have once
risen the continuation of a range which stood to the north of us. There
were deep grooves and corrugations in the valley in a direction from
south to north between the two sections of the now interrupted range.
There we found soil of red, brown and yellow tints, or else great
stretches of grey volcanic ashes and earth mixed, as well as sharply
angular fragments of igneous rock, which showed that they had not
travelled there by rolling on the ground or propelled by water.

After this we passed close to another curious spur of mountains on the
east--quite isolated and of a red vertical columnar formation. Its summit
was broken up--much more so than that of the plateau-like range to the
south of us which we were following in a parallel line. The highest point
of that range, to the south, was wooded, and so were the two
conical-topped hills which towered over it. The strata where exposed
showed a slight dip to the north. We crossed the range by two low cols at
elevations of 1,550 ft. and 1,560 ft. respectively. On the summit and
even lower upon the sides of those cols we found huge boulders of
eruptive rock, highly ferruginous. Globular lumps, big and small, of
spattered smooth-surfaced yellow lava were to be found in myriads; also
many spherical pellets of ferruginous, highly-baked rock with innumerable
holes produced while in a state of ebullition. Some of the ferruginous
rocks had pellets of yellow lava firmly imbedded in them, which had
evidently penetrated while liquid into the hollows of the ferruginous
rock which was already in a semi-solid, or perhaps solidified, condition.
At any rate, when it happened the ferruginous rock was already harder
than the lava.

While I was studying attentively the geological conditions of that
region, the sky suddenly became as black as ink to the south, and a heavy
shower, which lasted half an hour, drenched us all to the marrow of our
bones. Then it cleared up, and the sun, supplemented by our natural heat,
dried our clothes upon us again as we went on.

CHAPTER XII

Geological Speculation--Beautiful Pasture-land

THE stars were of extraordinary brilliancy at night; so much so that one
could see quite well enough by their light to get about. The atmosphere
being extremely clear, they appeared of immense size, the planets shining
with dazzling, changing colours which would have filled even the most