Our climb continued. The gradients got steeper and narrower. Sometimes they were cut across by deep pits that had to be cleared.

我们继续往上走。石径愈来愈难走，愈来愈狭窄。有根深的空洞时时把路径切断，我们必须跳过去。

Masses of overhanging rock had to be gotten around. You slid on your knees, you crept on your belly. But helped by the Canadian's strength and Conseil's dexterity, we overcame every obstacle.

许多兀起悬挂的大石要人绕路过去。我们跪下往前溜，我们附身爬着走。因为有康塞尔的便捷和加拿大人的帮助，——切阻碍都克服了。

At an elevation of about thirty meters, the nature of the terrain changed without becoming any easier.

到了三十米左右高度，地面性质起了变化：不过还可以走。

Pudding stones and trachyte gave way to black basaltic rock: here, lying in slabs all swollen with blisters; there, shaped like actual prisms and arranged into a series of columns that supported the springings of this immense vault, a wonderful sample of natural architecture.

累积岩和粗面岩后面，接着是玄武岩。后一种结为许多气泡，一片片地摊开在那里。前一种形成规律的梭形，像一列石柱排起来，把这巨大穹窿的起拱石支起，真是天然建筑物的壮丽模型。

Then, among this basaltic rock, there snaked long, hardened lava flows inlaid with veins of bituminous coal and in places covered by wide carpets of sulfur.

其次在玄武石岩中间，有冷了的火石的长流迁回环绕，嵌上许多沥青的线纹，同时又一处处铺着硫磺形成的宽阔地毯。

The sunshine coming through the crater had grown stronger, shedding a hazy light over all the volcanic waste forever buried in the heart of this extinct mountain.

一道较强大的光线从上层洞口射入，它那隐约模糊的光辉向着所有这些永远埋在媳灭的火山里面的、从前被火力排出来的物质照下来。