. Campfires on desert and lava . wanderings as a collector through the haunts of thesecreatures, he never saw but one alive and uncaught. At last we did reach the edge of that light-colouredplain; and it proved to be a naked and sterile zone of grayvolcanic ashes, half a mile wide and completely encirclingthe base of what once was a gorgeous volcano. It was assmooth as a floor, and entirely free from bits of lava andstone. Close down upon its surface there grew a thinsprinkling of delicate little plants, almost lichen-like intheir growth, known to botanists as the Indian wheat,or desert planta
. Campfires on desert and lava . wanderings as a collector through the haunts of thesecreatures, he never saw but one alive and uncaught. At last we did reach the edge of that light-colouredplain; and it proved to be a naked and sterile zone of grayvolcanic ashes, half a mile wide and completely encirclingthe base of what once was a gorgeous volcano. It was assmooth as a floor, and entirely free from bits of lava andstone. Close down upon its surface there grew a thinsprinkling of delicate little plants, almost lichen-like intheir growth, known to botanists as the Indian wheat,or desert plantain {Plantago aristata^ or perhaps P. ig-nota). That curious plant is as white as if covered with hoar-frost, and lends much extra whiteness to the appearanceof the ashy zone. The prong-horned antelope loves tofeed upon this delicate white carpet, and of this was fully aware. It was here that he hoped tofind a herd. Seeing no antelope, we rode across the zone of ashesand straight up the side of the volcano. When we drew. .t: -^ S u A DAY AT THE EDGE OF THE LAVA 141 rein upon the rim, a gorgeous scene lay before us and theadjectives began to fly Hke hail. Magnificent! Grand! Vesuvius in the desert! At our feet there yawned a vast circular pit, vv^alled inby perpendicular cliffs of red lava rock. It was half amile in diameter, and about two hundred feet deep on thelow side where we were. The rim of the crater was sharp,highest on the south side (opposite us), and lowest on thewest, where a notch had been blown out—all preciselylike Vesuvius, as it was in 1876, and for several years there-after. The rim on which we stood consisted of volcanicsand that by heat had been fused into sohd sandstone;and deep furrows ran down it, westward, to the pointwhere the bottom of the notch joined the zone of ashes. Mr. Milton and I left our horses and advanced to theinnermost edge of the crater to examine more closely thevegetation growing scantily on the level floor far noted
Size: 1316px × 1899px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
