Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1921-02-17
MILES To STUDY
OUR LANGUAGE
CONTINUED from first page.l

Eng around alone and Mrs. Henderick-
son informed us it was perfectly all
right as there were never any murders
or crimes of any kind on the island
and no one had ever been killed by
the volcano We went down the auto
road until we came to a. trail that
led down the mountain side and into
the crater We came to the lava and
mot seeing anyone, we were undecl-
Qied whether it was safe to venture
along this trackless waste where sui
Dhur mfsts were rising from cracks
in the earth's surface. But we saw
line of stones placed at intervals to
mark some sort of trail, so off we
went. 1t was four miles-and I've ne
yer walked another such four miles in
my lifei The lava was either slippery
0r sharp and rough. On either side
of the trail were deep cracks where
a hot wind was rising and white sui
phur clouds assembled. The rock was
red in places and woe to the shoe
che stepped from the trail. But it was
clark, and far ahead of us we could
see a bright colored cloud in the sky
that beckoned us on, so we half ran
trying to watch the cloud and yet
pick our way along. BY the time we
reached the edge of the pit 1t was
dark, and as we had counted on moon
fight to see us back, we had to change
our minds and decide to remain all
might.
Describes Volcano
never can describe our first Gimp
Se Of that seething, boiling, cauldron.
1t is too magnificent for words to
picture. The pit itself is seven miles
around, the walls of the pit are sheer
lava rock and the bottom of the pit
was only 100 feet from the top of
the rocks and steadily but slowly ris
ing We were there when the volcano
was at it's best. Can you imagine that
1mmense pit filled with fiery red
sg1are while the whole bottom of it
saeethed and boiled with such loud
acracklings and thunderings that put
amy mere waterfall to shame! Fiery
fountains shot up fifty or sixty feet,
throwing burning chunks of lava for
"a radius of forty feet. The heat was
80 intense that although a strong
chill wind was blowing at the edge
OF the pit we had to put handker-
chiefs over our faces to keep them
from being scOrched. When the lava
broke up with a hiss and crackle it
%1Th n oh
see it isn't really fire, the rat under
the earth's crust is so intense that
1T melts the hard rock and it bubbles
and flies up into the air like some
thick liquid. We saw the most won
%ierful lava flow, from one end of the
pit to the other. we found a ledge of
7vOCk part way down the side of the
cliff, and climbed down to be shell
tered from the wind. Shortly after
we had moved from our place on the
top of the cliff, the top of the cliff
gave a terrible slide and landed in
the fiery pit We didn't expect much
sleep that night we were in too pre-
scarious a position, and besides there
was too much to see And it's a
good thing we didn't sleep, because
between two and three o'clock the
great lava flow passed right under
us and drove us from our comfortable
position. The sulphur fumes were al
most overpOwering-tw hours of
breathing nothing but sulphur-laden
sar made us rather sick by morning
Take New Road
Well, at five O'Clock we started
follow the dim trail across the lava,
SO we walked part way around the
pit and found an auto rOad-but the
coke was we didn't know where it led!
However, we took it as that seemed
10 be the only thing to do-our night
under the stars had made us rather
hungry, after having only one sand
7wich and an apple for supper! But
that road can see it in my dreams
yet! 1t crossed three mountains and
wound in and out, led us to a couple
of extinct volcanoes in it's wander
ings, and still we had no idea that
1T would lead us to the main volcano
ROAD. Our shoe SoleS were worn as
thin as paper from our scramble
across the pahoehoe Qava) and even
The tiniest stone in the road made us
Amp. To cap the climax, drizzling
rain set in. After we had almost gil
ven up in despair, about the thfrtieth
turn in the road gave us a view of
the Crater hotel, and in spite Of terri
Die fatigue, we almost ran the remain
ing two miles home. We afterwards
FOUND that that road is ten miles long!
Pretty good tramp before breakfast,
after a sleepless night, after an eight
5mI1es walk, after our thirty mile ride!
Sounds like the "house that Jack
QUILT doesn't it? We built fires, chan
ged our wet clothes. and turned our
r.