thick scrub with vicious thorns
that tore one's clothes and skin mercilessly.

We came upon an immense deep crack in the earth surface--a regular
canon--which extended all along the centre of the great valley. On the
opposite side of it were again big domes of lava in corrugated designs,
also a gigantic circular crater. Many natural crucibles of iron rock,
some cylindrical in shape, others oval, others formed not unlike Pompeian
lamps--while others still were square or rectangular or
lozenge-shaped--were to be seen in many spots on the moraine-like tails
that extended southward, like the tentacles of an octopus, and in the
heaps of much carbonized rock and solidified froth produced by what was
once boiling rock. The mounds of froth were usually collected in
depressions.

The west side of the Paredao was decidedly the most interesting of all.
Its great arches showed that it must have once formed the sides of a
great cauldron--the top of which had subsequently collapsed or been blown
off. This seemed quite apparent from the discoloration in the rocky cliff
some 50 ft. above the arches, which followed the exact line of what must
have been the thickness of the vault. The rock in that discoloured
section was perfectly smooth, whereas above that it became much cracked
vertically in layers, and gave the appearance of a masonry wall.

Toward the south-western corner there was a prismatic tower. Where the
peculiar isolated rocks near the tower formed a spur, a dip was
noticeable in the flow of the once molten rock, following what must have
been at that time the surface soil over the cauldron's roof.

A huge triangular crater could be seen, from which started an enormous
crack of great length in the lava-flow of the valley to the west.

The southern face of that stupendous rocky quadrangle was not quite so
vertical as the west and north sides, and was more in tiers or steps of
lava--but very steep indeed. It had in its lower part a great spur
extending southward.

As I have said, Alcides and I arrived within 30 ft. of the summit of the
great Paredao, at an elevation of 2,550 ft., the summit being 2,580 ft.;
but owing to the last 30 ft. being absolutely vertical and the top rock
of a crumbling nature, and as my object in wishing to obtain a full view
of the country to the south had been attained, I did not think it worth
while to court an accident for nothing. It was well after sunset when we
were up there, and it would tak