obtained from the somewhat perilous summit of the mass of root
called Lot, where the spectator, elevated nearly 1500 feet, on a pinnacle
almost in the very centre of the huge howl, obtains an unintercepted
view of the whole. The ascent of Lot is a tedious climb,
but well repays the labour bestowed upon it.
At the foot of the almost perpendicular fall from the crater’s
edge, the ground begins to slope more gradually, but very irregularly,
down towards the sea. The formation, as we proceed
towards the floor of the crater, becomes unstratified and confused,
and is intersected by numerous dikes, varying in thickness from a
couple of inches to a hundred feet or more. As the centre of the
crater near Sandy Bay Beach is approached, these dikes increase in
number, sometimes lying closely side by side, even also crossing
each other at right angles, and varying in composition just as much
as in their outward form and colour. They soon appear numberless,
and are so complete that scarcely a fault or displacement of the
adjacent ground can be traced; they have much the appearance of
brick or stone walls running up and down and across the crater
sides in all directions, even extending out to sea like so many well
built landing-piers. Of some of the largest of these dikes, three or
four are very remarkable features in the structure of the Island,
striking, as they dp, in parallel lines from the north-east to the
south-west right across the crater ; and, when viewed from its
edge, much resembling the trail of some great serpent or monster
which had wended its way across it. Some of them testify strongly
to the amount of disintegration and denudation that has, through
long ages, been in progress on the surface of the Island. One
especially of them, which may be traced for four miles or more,
being formed of a fine hard crystalline felspathic greystone, much
harder than the surrounding rocks, has worn away much less
rapidly than the adjacent ground, and left huge monolithic columnar
remains of itself at intervals throughout its length. One of these
great piles of rock has just been mentioned as bearing the name of
Lot. I t stands almost in the middle of the now remaining portion
of the crater, at an elevation of 1444 feet above the sea, having a
base 100 feet in thickness, and an altitude of 290 feet. A second,
called Lot’s Wife, stands about a mile and a half further to the
south-west, elevated 1550 feet above the sea, with an altitude of
260 feet, its upper portion being considerably larger than the base