It was difficult walking, for they were all among lava and sliding cinders, but the guides kept close by them, and helped them over difficult places.

When they had descended perhaps a hundred feet or so, the ground became percolated with steam, jets of it poured from holes among the rocks, and the cinders upon which they stood felt warm to their boots.

The guides brought the party to a halt upon a ledge of volcanic rock, from below which ran a sheer slide of hot cinders into the ravine.

From here there was a splendid near view of the cone, its top yellow with sulphur, and at its base a lake of molten lava.

One of the guides, a venturesome fellow, climbed down by another path and fetched lumps of sulphur as souvenirs for the girls, and the other guide pressed upon them pieces of lava into which, while hot, he had inserted coins, so that they had set into the mass when cool.