Mr. IVvt. L. Grccti's Observations. 79 



fascinating. Perhaps the circumstance which impressed me most was the dead silence which reigned . 

 The noisy explosions of the night before had been left far behind. There was no wind, and the now 

 illuminated smoke rose as it had done the day before in a well-defined perpendicular column, but 

 spreading out on all sides at a great height in the atmosphere. I gazed at it long and steadily. 

 I had toiled all day to get to this spot and to learn something, perchance, about volcanic action, but 

 here at the crater, the only idea which I seemed capable of realizing, was my own utter insignificance 

 amongst this waste of fire, smoke and lava, and as I turned from the view a moment to look back at 

 the little white tent, tinged with a lurid red, perched amongst a chaos of black slags, I felt as an 

 astronomer might, who, looking through his telescope at the surface of the moon should suddenly 

 discover a habitation ; the difference being that here I seemed to be in the moon, or at least in a spot 

 which was equally unearthly and unsuited for human exi.stence. The exertion of the last two days 

 made my bed of pumice welcome, and after retiring I slept till daylight, not a single sound having 

 disturbed us. On looking out in the morning, the great, steadily rising pillar of cloud beside us 

 was reassuring. The colour of the smoke, by daylight, seemed to be about the same as that of a 

 steamer burning Welsh or semibituminous coal after she first fires up. It rose gently, curling in 

 great wreaths and folds, just as it might from the funnel of a huge steamer. I made an attempt to 

 climb the edge of the crater and look in, but after .scraml)ling for some time out of one sulphury crack 

 into another, a thick fog crept up the mountain side and enveloped me, so that I could see nothing 

 in any direction, and was glad, when on retreating, I found myself within hail of my guides, although 

 I could neither see them nor the tent. In the course of an hour or two the fog cleared up, and we 

 started down the mountain, our provisions and water being only sufficient for half a daj- longer. 

 In descending I kept as near as possible to the lava stream which was running from the lower part 

 of the crater, in the usual covered passage formed by its own cooled crust. At the lower side of the 

 crater, just where the slope became moderate, we observed some vitrified breakers. The molten 

 glass-foam had run over the lip of the crater in great waves and now stood on the gentle slope below, 

 like petrified combers on the sea shore. The likeness was the more remarkable because the break 

 of the waves was up the slope, and the falling crests were in the opposite direction, mechanicall}- 



speaking, to those of the ocean waves In some places the wave seemed to have bent, fallen and 



tlout)led upon itself, and the vesicular glass had solidified in great folds of a delicate green .shade, 

 looking like the folds of satin as they are sometimes displayed in a shop window.'''' The material of 

 the waves seemed to be identical in composition and colour, with the usual Hawaiian pumice or 

 glass-foam [limu], and the semi-transparent glaze covered the whole outer surface. 



We got belated, and were compelled to go supperless to rest on the ropy pahoehoe, which, 

 with nothing but a blanket to interpose, was not so comfortable to lie upon as the pumice at the 

 crater. It was, however better than aa, and rising early next morning, we arrived at the camping 

 ground ju.st in time to hail the native, who was leaving with our horses, and who had been instructed 

 to wait for us: the rest of the party having left for Kailua the day before. We could hardly have 

 blamed him for leaving us to get to the coast as best we could. He had concluded that we were 

 make (dead). Few Hawaiians could have been found to remain a night alone amidst the fires and 

 thunders of their offended goddess Pele. 



The immense columns of smoke which so constantlj' rise from the orifice!) of eruption on 

 Hawaii, may often be largely composed of the vapor of water. When the lava breaks away, great 

 red-hot chasms mu.st often be left, and percolating surface water may well find its way into them and 

 escape at the only opening, that is where the lava escapes. At the time of my visit to the 1859 crater, 

 the top of the mountain was covered with snow, which would be one source of percolating water. . . . 

 One important ingredient in most Hawaiian volcanic smoke so-called, is the excessively light, 



"This identical formation appeared also in the eruption of i88u-Si according to a painting by Mr. Furneaux 

 now before me. It is shown, although not so clearly as I could wish, in the right foreground. 



[457] 



