Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1861-12-06

without his consent.
Il will wait" he answered, "but re-
member, master, you 60 down against my
advice"
The crater or hollow was about fifty
feet in depth, with gently sloping sides ;
and using my pointed stick with the great
est care, forthwith began to descend, of
ten stopping to try she temper Of the lava
With my hand, and finding it gradually
grow warmer as | proceeded, although not
sufficiently SO to excite any alarm. In a
short time | reached the bottom, and stood
on the verge of one of the seams or chasms.
which opened far, far down into the heart
of the mountain. 1t was about four feet
in width, zigzag in shape, and emitted
strongly the odor before mentioned. A
small, trickling stream, from a melting
layer of ice above, was running into it; bat
could only see that it was lost in the
darkness below, from which came up q
kind of Kissing. boiling, surging sound,
with something like rumbling shock at
Sigh intervals and gentle puffs of heated
air. .-.- ..ss..s..
The place, the scene, and withal the
sense of danger connected with it, held
me there with sort of magnetic fascina-
ton, and | soon found myself strongly
tempted to make fatal plunge into the
awful abyss. Knowing by experience
that reason is not always able to govern
and control the actions in such cases, I
forced myself back few feet, but still re-
manned near the opening, deaf to the en-
treaties of my Fl lightened guide, who now
began to implore me to return before it
should be too late. AS the dread volcano
had not been in action moro than thirty
years beyond his birth, I believed that
he could know no more of the danger than
myself, and therefore preferred to act from
the dictates of my own feelings rather than
his fears and as I was to pay him well
for his services, felt but but little disposed
to be hurried from place which had cost
me SO much time, money, and trouble to
visit.
Giving no heed, therefore, to his ear
nest solicitations, now resolved to sound,
if possible, the depth of the chasm before
me, and then proceed to inspect the 9th
ers; and for this purpose | pried off from
a larger enc small block Of lava, and ad-
vancing to the very edge of the chasm,
dropped it down, and listened 10 the hol-
low reverberations, as it went bounding
from side to side, long after it was lost to
the eye. The depth was SO i'm
mense that I heard it for more than min
ute, and then the sound seemed rather to
die out from distance than to cease because
of the block having reached its destination.
1t was an awful depth, and fearfully i'm
pressed me with the terrible and as
drew back with shudder, gust of hot,
sulphurous air rushed and roared upward,
followed by steam-like vapor, aud heavy
hollow sound, as if a cannon had been
discharged far down in the bowels of the
earth
This new manifestation of the powers of
Nature fairly startled me into desire for
fieIT and had already turned for the
|, ,gyspose, when suddenly there came sort
Of rumbling crash, and the ground, sha-
king, heaving and rolling under me, began
to crumble off into the dread abyss. I
was thrown down, and on my lands and
knees, praying to God for mercy, was
scrambling over it and upward. to save my
self from a most horrible fate, when two
blocks. rolling together, caught my feet
and legs between them, and, without ac-
tualy crushing, held them as if in a vice.
Then came another crash and crumble, the
lava slid away from behind me, and I was
left upou the very verge of the awful gulf,
now wideued to scme fifteen or twenty
feet, down into which | looked with hor-
ror strained eyes, only to see darkness and
/ death below, and breathe tie almost suffo-
eating vapors that rushed up from that
seemingly bottomless pit.
o, the horrors of that awful realization!
what pen or tongue can portray them?-
there. helpless but conscious prisoner,
suspended over the mouth of black and
heated abyss, to be hurled downward by
the next great throe of trembling nature.
Help! help help for the love of God,
help" screamed in the very agony of a
wild despair.
/ I looked up and around TO catch a
glimpse of my guide but he was gene,
and I bad nothing to rely on but the mer-
cy of heaven and prayed to God, as I
never prayed before, for forgiveness of
my sins, that they might pot follow me to
! Judgment 1t might be second, it might
be minute, it might be an hour. that
should have thus to undergo a living
death; but be the time long or short [ felt
there was no escape from doom that even
now makes me grow pale and shudder