Northern Sulphur Bank. 



8i 



over several cracks, one of which, a little more than a yard wide, had opened about a 

 year since, accompanied h\ an explosion heard distindlly at a distance of twenty- miles. 

 Some of the cracks were parallel with the edge of the abj-ss, others were at right 

 angles to these, and in one place the small cracks were so numerous as to resemble a 

 geometric spider's web. 



Passing over the high cliffs on the northwest, the road leads down by a steep 

 descent of fifty feet to a plain a mile long, and three-quarters of a mile wide, gravelly, 

 and covered sparsel}- with a growth of dwarf ohia and ohelos, and dotted with small 



FIG. 54. THE NORTHERN SULPHUR BANK IN 1889. 



oval or circular fumaroles, from which steam was issuing silently and abimdantly. 

 The steam had no odor, and ferns and other plants grew luxiiriantly over the open- 

 ings. Around these steam holes the muddy and tenacious red soil retained pools of 

 excellent water condensed from the steam. There was no trace of sulphur or acid in 

 it that could be dete6led by the taste or by the more delicate test papers. The rock 

 through which these steam holes passed was completel}' decomposed from a hard gray 

 clinkstone to a red loamy earth, soft and worn smooth by the ascending vapors. It was 

 quite evident that these fumaroles were not originally formed \>y the vapor, but were 

 simply cracks through which the steam escaped, and the circular shape resulted from 

 the falling in of the surface gravel and soil. The steam was quite hot, and we saw 

 the remains of several cattle who had gone too near in search of water, 



Memoirs B, P. B. Museum. Vol. II. No. 4.-6. [459j 



