572 



W. T. BRIGIIAM ON THE RECENT 



issued from the floor in a hundred places, but of those stifling sulphurous and acid gases, 

 formerly so overpowering in the neighborhood of the lakes and ovens, only the faintest 

 trace was perceived here and there. 



" The heat was nowhere so great that we could not keep our footing for a minute or more, 

 although in many places it would forbid the touch of the bare hand. The great south lake 

 [Halenmumau] is transformed into a vast pit, more than five hundred feet deep, the solid 

 eastern wall projecting far over the hollow below, while the remaining sides are falling off 

 with a sharp inclination, and consist of a confused mass of rough aa. More than two thirds 

 of the old floor of Kilauea has caved in, and sunk from one hundred to three hundred feet 

 below the level of the remaining floor. 



The Crater of Kilaue'a after the Eruption, 18G8. 



" The depression embraces the whole western half, and infringes in a semicircular line on 

 a considerable portion of the other half. This is greatest in the northern, and rather grad- 

 ual and gentle in its southern portion. Entering upon the depressed floor from the southern 

 lake, it was some time before we became fully aware of its existence, and it was only on 

 our return from the northwest corner, where it is deepest, that there presented itself through 

 the mist in which we were enveloped, a high wall of three hundred feet, grotesque and fan- 

 ciful in outline. At first we were quite bewildered, fancying that we beheld the great outer 

 wall of the crater. On nearer approach we soon satisfied ourselves that this singular wall 

 represented the line of demarcation of a great depression in the floor of the crater — a fact 



