New Britain herald., 1918-05-10

such places that probably would have turned us back had they occurred when we first arrived.
 Several times, when we acci- dentally put a foot through a thin place in the crust, steam came spout ing out of the hole. forming a new fumarole. But it was always one foot only and the owner did not take long to get out.
 Once, while walking across a place that looked perfectly solid, I noticed q new role midway between two old Assures and on Investigating found that a steaming Assure two feet wide and ten feet deep was roofed over for fifty feet by a layer of mud so thin that I could perforate it any where by a slight thrust with my ice- aX.
 But such experiences rapidly led us to perfect sort of technique like that of the mountain climber, which enabled us to choose the safest paths. Moreover, the first trip over the ground was the most dangerous After one man had explored any area m safety, there was no probability of lccident to those who followed. !! Cooking at 3 FumaroIe. "In many places the valley round about the vents is covered with a pe- culiar blue mud, thinly coated with a chestnut brown crust, which some
 times gives way suddenly, letting one down to his shoe-tops in the soft, sc2lding mud beneath. At such times 1 one is apt to feel that his feet are 1 taking hold on hell in very verity, particularly if the place happens to look 'ticklish' otherwise. We were 1 surprised to find that continued im-
 n,ersion of our feet in such places
 did our shoes no perceptible injury,
 for we had expected that they would 1 le rapidly eaten away.
 l We chose our camp we'll up on 1 the mountain side overlooking the
 valley, close beside a melting snow- 1 drift. Here, although we were de- 1 med the pleasure of a campfire, for l net a stick of wood remains any 1 where in the valley, we had all the comforts of home. Fifty yards behind us was our refrigerator, where we could keep everything freezing cold until needed
 Just in front was our cook-stove "a hammered fumarole-into which we hung our pots to cook our food. We were somewhat dubious beforehand as to the feasibility of this method of cooking, because of the nOXiOus gases that came off along with the steam; but the results were more than satisfactory. We never detected the faintest taint in any of our food. Everything was always cone exactly right. Since the pots were surrounded by an atmosphere Of live steam, just at the point of cordensing, nothing ever boiled away, cooked to pieces, or burned, no matter how long neglected or for gotten.
 \ Steam-Heated Tent
 ''When we turned in the first that the ground under our tent was decidedly warm. On examination we found that a therm ometer thrust t inches into the ground promptly rose to boiling point. This was in. deed a surprise, for the place only recently had been vacated by the re. treating snoWbank behind us.
 We put most of our bedding un. der us to keep Us cool.
 "But before long our blankets were as hot as the ground. Close to the l snoW-dr1ft as we were, and at an al- ] titude. of about 2,500 feet, the air ] was at times quite cold; so while va 1 steamed on one side we froze on the 1 ether. We had to keep turning over 1 and over in the effort to eoualize the