504 MASSES OF LAVA.-BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL. over a Cossack; in a little more than an hour all the party, with our arms and saddles, were safely landed. Horses were then procured, when I rewarded the man, and, having watched him across the river, we rode up the valley. The lava rose like a wall, in some places forty feet high; in others it was heaped into enormous masses, and great chasms crossed the bed, looking as if formed by the mass cooling. This volcanic matter interested me greatly, and I determined to seek its source, for during my ride I had ascertained that it had flowed down the valley of the Djem-a-louk. At dusk in the evening we reached a Cossack picket, when I made known my wishes to the officer, who told me that the Bouriats had great dread of that valley, and never ascended it except by compulsion. He ordered that seven good men should be collected, and be ready to accompany me in the morning. Soon after daylight they had assembled. We were eleven in number, and the Cossacks had no fear of Shaitan, whom the Bouriats thought we should be sure to find. About ten versts from the picket we entered upon the dreaded region, and wended our way close to the edge of the lava, frequently through a dense forest, amid fallen rocks and detached heaps of volcanic matter. I am not surprised that these men have a superstitious dread of this place, for a more savage and supernatural-looking valley I never saw. The River Djem-a-louk was lost under the lava for ten or fifteen versts, and then we found it rushing and roaring over its bed of the same material. The ride was a difficult one, often along the foot of various precipices 1500 to 2000 feet in height, from which huge blocks had been thrown into the bed when in a fluid state, which was clearly perceptible by the current dividing on each side of the rocks, like water at the pier of a bridge. About noon on the second day we reached a point where another deep and narrow valley joined the Djem-a-louk from the south, and in this there was also a bed of lava evidently produced by the same eruption, which was so rugged, and intersected by such deep fissures, that it was impossible to take our horses across to explore the valley. Our difficulties became greater as we proceeded forward; in some places the lava filled the valley up to the perpendicular face of the precipices, which compelled us to take our horses over its broken surface. In one part we came upon a beautiful waterfall, flowing over the top of one of the high cliffs. The strata were perfectly horizontal; the water fell in a thin stream, about twenty-five feet wide, and all the forms of the rocks could be seen through it. After dropping thirty feet, it was wafted about by the breeze like a piece of the finest gauze, and before reaching the bottom it was lost in vapor, but we found it again collected into a stream at the bottom of the rocks. On the evening of the third day we beheld the Kara-Noor, which I at first supposed to be the crater, but on reaching its shore I found that it must be sought in another direction in a deep valley running directly to the south, which was done on foot. We started at daybreak the following morning, and crossed the bed of lava in the valley of the Djem-a-louk. In doing this we had to descend into chasms sixty and eighty feet deep, where the volcanic matter had cracked in cooling. After a day of extraordinary toil, we slept on blocks of it at night. On the afternoon of the second day we beheld the top of a huge cone, and, as the sun was setting, stood on its summit, looking upon the terrific scene around. I at once began sketching a view of this wonderful region, and gave orders to a Cossack to have a fire and preparations made for our night's encampment. Large trees were growing on the sides of the cone, wood close at hand, and water could be got at no great distance. He left me to communicate his instructions, and shortly returned, informing me that the Bouriats were in a state of great alarm. They begged of me not to attempt to sleep on the cone, as, should I venture to do so, Shaitan, with his legions, would certainly pay us a visit, and probably hurl us into the fearful abyss in the crater. So great was their dread, that the Cossack assured me the men would run away and leave us. I desired him to tell them to prepare our camp where they pleased. The cone is about 800 feet high, is exceedingly abrupt and deep in the interior, and formed of lava and red ashes. It stands at the northern end of the crater, which is elliptical in form, but very irregular, extending from north to south nearly two miles, and in some parts more than three quarters of a mile in width; toward the southern end of the crater rose another cone of more recent date and of greater magnitude. Beyond this is the opposite scene-a small stream which comes from the snowy mountains above, dashes over the brink of the crater, and rushes on among masses of lava till it takes its last leap into a fearful abyss. This crater is not on 508 VOLCANIC MATTER.-BLACK-LEAD MINE. the summit of a mountain, as high peaks and ridges surround it on every side. Its eastern side is bounded by rocks probably not less than two thousand feet high, which are not perpendicular, but overhang their base, their faces bearing marks of intense heat. A few are gray, others purple, and some of a deep red. To the northeast these high precipices have been rent asunder into a tremendous chasm, through which the lava has flowed into the valley which joined the Djem-a-louk, where I observed it when making the ascent. No scene with which I am acquainted conveys such an impression of the terrible and sublime as the prospect from some parts of this wonderful region, in which I spent many days. We returned by another route, crossing the high mountains to the north. When ascending, I found many large stones and other matter that had been ejected from the crater during the eruptions, of which there have been three at distant periods, and the cones are still more recent. From one summit we looked down into the crater, and could see the valleys through which the igneous matter has flowed. When the volcano was belching forth its lava, flames, and thunder, with the molten mass surrounding the mountain, it must have appeared like an island in a sea of fire. In the country of the Kalkas, to the south of Oubsa-noor, exist other volcanic indications, which would connect this volcano with Pe-shan in the Syan-shan. Leaving the wild volcanic region, we commenced our journey up the valley of the Oka, on our way to visit a black-lead mine discovered and worked by a Frenchman, M. Alebere. The route led us through some fine mountain scenery, which I found well worth a visit, and we had to pass many mountain torrents, now much swollen by the snow melting in the higher chains, which not only delayed us, but frequently rendered our ride dangerous. After a journey of three days we reached the mine, which is on the summit of a mountain perfectly dome-shaped; there are others all around it rising considerably higher, while to the east rise great cliffs of granite, which appear falling into ruins as they are tumbled into the valley beneath. M. Alebere received me with great kindness, and I found him a most intelligent man. The mine was a shaft about twenty feet in diameter, and at that time about twenty feet deep; I descended it by a wooden staircase, and found the sides covered with a thick coating of ice, that rendered it im |