Both are covered with immense deluges of black naked lava, which
have flowed either over the rims of the great caldrons, like pitch
over the rim of a pot in which it has been boiled, or have burst
forth from smaller orifices on the flanks; in their descent they
have spread over miles of the sea-coast. On both of these islands
eruptions are known to have taken place; and in Albemarle we saw a
small jet of smoke curling from the summit of one of the great
craters. In the evening we anchored in Bank's Cove, in Albemarle
Island. The next morning I went out walking. To the south of the
broken tuff-crater, in which the "Beagle" was anchored, there was
another beautifully symmetrical one of an elliptic form; its longer
axis was a little less than a mile, and its depth about 500 feet.
At its bottom there was a shallow lake, in the middle of which a
tiny crater formed an islet. The day was overpoweringly hot, and
the lake looked clear and blue: I hurried down the cindery slope,
and, choked with dust, eagerly tasted the water--but, to my sorrow,
I found it salt as brine.
The rocks on the coast abounded with great black lizards, between
three and four feet long; and on the hills, an ugly yellowish-brown
species was equally common.
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