£14 Contributions to Physical Geography. 



and removed from a dangerous place, which the natives had 

 superstitiously chosen for them, upon the very edge of the 

 crater. The ground sounded hollow in every direction, fre- 

 quently cracked, and in two instances, actually gave way as 

 they were passing over it, and exposed the persons, whose 

 limbs sunk through the lava, to great danger, and to some 

 injury. 



Mr Thurston, who had been benighted at some distance, 

 found his way back, directed by the fire, but not without ex- 

 periencing great difficulty from the " unevenness of the path, 

 and the numerous wide fissures in the lava.' 1 They now par- 

 took with cheerfulness of their evening repast, and afterwards, 

 amidst the whistling of the winds around, and the roaring of 

 the furnace beneath, offered up their evening sacrifice of 

 praise. " Between nine and ten, the dark clouds and heavy 

 fog, that, since the setting of the sun, had hung over the vol- 

 cano, gradually cleared away, and the fires of Kirauea, dart- 

 ing their fierce light across the midnight gloom, unfolded a 

 sight terrible and sublime beyond all they had yet seen." 



" The agitated mass of liquid lava, like a flood of melted 

 metal, raged with tumultuous whirl. The lively flame that 

 danced over its undulating surface, tinged with sulphureous 

 blue, or glowing with mineral red, cast a broad glare of daz- 

 zling light on the indented sides of the insulated craters, whose 

 bellowing mouths, amidst rising flames and eddying streams 

 of fire, shot up at frequent intervals, with loudest detonations, 

 spherical masses of fusing lava, of bright ignited stones. The 

 dark, bold outline of the perpendicular and jutting rocks 

 around, formed a striking contrast with the luminous lake be- 

 low, whose vivid rays, thrown on the rugged promontories, 

 and reflected by the overhanging clouds, combined to complete 

 the awful grandeur of the imposing scene." 



They sat " gazing at the magnificent phenomenon for seve- 

 ral hours, when they laid themselves down on mats, to observe 

 more leisurely its varying aspect ; for, although they had tra- 

 velled upwards of twenty miles since the morning, and were 

 both weary and cold, they felt little inclination to sleep. The 

 natives, who probably viewed the scene with thoughts and 

 feelings somewhat different from theirs, seemed however equal- 



