Crater of the Great Volcano of Kirauea- 55 



These emotions, however, soon passed off, and we began with 

 great spirit and activity the enterprise before us. I can compare 

 the general aspect of the bottom of the crater to nothing, that 

 will give a livelier image of it to your mind, than to the appear- 

 ance the Otsego would present, if the ice with which it is covered 

 in the winter, were suddenly broken up by a heavy storm, and 

 as suddenly frozen again, while large fragments were still toss- 

 ing and dashing and heaping against each other, with the mo- 

 tion of the waves. Just so rough and distorted was the black 

 mass under our feet, only an hundredfold more terrific, inde- 

 pendent of the innumerable cracks, fissures, deep holes and 

 chasms, from which sulphurous vapour, steam and smoke, were 

 exhaled, with a degree of heat that testified to the near vicinity 

 of fire. 



We had not proceeded far, before our path was intersected 

 by a chasm at least thirty feet wide, and of a greater depth than 

 we could ascertain, at the nearest distance we dared approach it. 

 The only alternative was to return, or follow its course till it 

 terminated, or became narrow enough to be crossed. We chose 

 the latter, but soon met an equally formidable barrier in a cur- 

 rent of smoke, so highly impregnated with a suffocating gas, as 

 not to allow of respiration. While hesitating what to do, we 

 perceived this to be swept off, occasionally by an eddy of the air 

 in a direction opposite to that in which it generally settled, and 

 watching an opportunity when our way was thus made clear, 

 we held our breath, and ran as rapidly as the dangerous cha- 

 racter of the ground would permit, till we gained a place be- 

 yond its ordinary course. We here found ourselves unexpect- 

 edly delivered also from the other impediment to our progress 

 — the chasm, which abruptly ran off in a direction far from that 

 we wished to pursue. 



We were now at an inconsiderable distance from one of the 

 largest of the conical craters whose laborious action had so great- 

 ly impressed our minds during the night, and we hastened to a 

 near examination of it. So prodigious an engine I never expect 

 again to behold. On reaching its base, we judged it to be 150 

 feet high, — a huge, irregularly shapen inverted funnel of lava, 

 covered with clefts and orifices, from which bodies of steam 

 escaped with deafening explosions, while pale flames, ashes, 



