Mr Ellis's Description of the Volcano of Kirauea. 151 



a precise means of measuring the quantity of electricity which 

 passes along conductors. 



" On the 4th of August," says he, " about mid-day, when the 

 electrical clouds announced a storm, I raised a metallic point on 

 the observatory of the College of France. A pole of nine metres 

 was placed near the highest paratonnerre, which it surpassed 

 by about a metre. It carried a conducting wire terminated 

 by two needles, very fine and slightly divergent. This con- 

 ducting wire, covered with silk, traversed a glass tube, and de- 

 scended into the chamber where the galvanometer was placed. 

 It was fixed to one of the extremities of the galvanometer, 

 whilst the other extremity communicated with the rod of the 

 paratonnerre, and consequently with the ground. When it 

 began to thunder, the needle of the galvanometer deviated be- 

 tween 34° and 32°, and the electricity was negative." 



Art. XXII. — Description of the Volcano of Kirauea, in Ha- 

 waii, one of tlie Sandwich Islands. By the Reverend 

 William Ellis. With a Plate.* 



In our last Number, p. 303, we had occasion to lay before 

 our readers Mr Ellis's interesting account of the burning 

 chasms of Ponohohoa, and we propose at present to give an 

 account of the active volcano of Kirauea, as described by the 

 same author. 



The plain through which it is necessary to pass to the 

 mountain was an extensive waste of ancient lava, which re- 

 sembled an inland sea bounded by different mountains. It 

 seems to havejbeen once in a fluid state, but has now the ap- 

 pearance of having been suddenly petrified while its waves had 

 been in a state of tumultuous agitation. Not only were the 

 large swells and hollows distinctly marked, but the surface 

 was covered by a smaller ripple like that which precedes the 

 springing up of a breeze. Before the crater suddenly burst 

 upon our view, we expected to have seen a mountain with a 

 broad base, and rough indented sides, composed of loose slags * 



* Sec last Number, Plate III. 



