Descent into Kilauea. 



83 



selenium. At first it seemed that this plain had sunk, but farther examination con- 

 vinced me that this was once the floor of the ancient crater, — a black ledge. 



As soon as our men came up with the blankets, we engaged guides and went 

 down into the crater. The descent was steep and winding, and we passed over several 

 terraces which were the result of a sinking or falling in as their strata were inclined 

 and much broken, and came under the grand wall of compact lava figured in the 

 Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition.'"' A descent of some four hun- 



FIG. 56. KILAUEA IN 1S64. PERRY. 



dred feet brought us to the bottom, and we stepped from a gravell_y, shelving bank on 

 to a black lava which had broken out last year under the north bank, and overflowed 

 this end of the crater. Where it touched the gravel bank it had glued to its ;inder 

 surface the small fragments of stone, but had not altered their appearance, and all 

 along the edge it was cracked, and laid up on the bank as if, on cooling, the lava had 

 fallen about a foot. The surface was covered with a thin, scaly, vitreous crust, which 

 crumbled beneath the tread, sounding like snow on a cold morning, and thus a verj- 

 distinct path was made t» the Halemaiimau, the enduring house of Pele. The lava 

 beneath this crust, however, Avas so hard as to strike otrt abundant sparks as the steel 



''Named "Waldron's Ledge" for the purser of the expedition. Vol. iv, p. 171. 



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