Sketch of the Life of Mr, David Douglas, 335 



beholder with a fearful pleasure. From the descriptions of for- 

 mer visitors, I judge that Mouna Roa must now be in a state of 

 comparative tranquillity. A lake of liquid fire, in extent about a 

 thirteenth part of the whole crater, was boiling with furious agi- 

 tation ; not constantly, however, for at one time it appeared calm 

 and level, the numerous fiery red streaks on its surface alone 

 attesting its state of ebullition, when again, the red hot lava 

 would dart upwards and boil with terrific grandeur, spouting to a 

 heiglit wdiich from the distance at which I stood I calculated to 

 be from forty to seventy feet, when it would dash violently 

 against the black ledge, and then subside again for a few mo- 

 ments. Close by the fire was a chimney above forty feet high, 

 which occasionally discharges its steam, as if all the steam-engines 

 in the world were concentrated in it. This preceded the tranquil 

 state of the lake which is situated near the south-west or smaller 

 end of the crater. In the centre of the great crater, a second 

 lake of fire, of circular form, but smaller dimensions, was boil- 

 ing W'ith equal intensity : the noise was dreadful beyond all des- 

 cription. The people having arrived, Honori last, my tent was 

 pitched twenty yards back from the perpendicular wall of the 

 crater ; and as there was an old hut of Ti leaves on the interme- 

 diate bank, only six feet from the extreme verge, my people 

 soon repaired it for their own use. As the sun sunk behind the 

 western flank of Mouna Roa, the splendour of the scene increas- 

 ed ; but when the nearly full moon rose in a cloudless sky, and 

 shed her silvery brightness on the fiery lake, roaring and boiling 

 in fearful majesty, the spectacle became so commanding, that I 

 lost a fine night for making astronomical observations by gazing 

 on the volcano, the illumination of which was but little diminish 

 ed by a thick haze that set in at midnight. On Friday, January 

 the 24th, the air was delightfully clear and I was enabled to 

 take the bearings of the volcano and adjoining o*bjects with great 

 exactness. To the north of the crater are numerous cracks and 

 fissures in the ground, varying in size, form and depth, some 

 long, some straight, round or twisted, from whence steam con- 

 stantly issued, which in two of them is rapidly condensed, and 

 collects in small basins or wells one of which is situated at the 

 immediate edge of the crater, and the other four hundred and 

 eighty yards to the north of it. The latter fifteen inches deep, 

 and three feet in diameter, about thirteen feet north of a very 

 large fissure, according to my thermometer, compared with that 



