Third I 'isif to Kilauca. 



89 



shelf fell in with a loud uoise. This formed a small island which was soon broken and 

 melted by the boiling lava. 



August 22, I returned to Kilauea from Hilo, having since my last visit explored 

 the district of Puna and the pit craters on the course of the flow of 1840. I brought 

 with me surveying instruments and photograph apparatus (wet-plate most unsuitable 



FIG. 60. KIL.\UF..\ IKI. 



to the vicinity of sulphur fumes), and after spending a da}' in selecting stations and 

 drilling my kanakas in chaining, commenced the survey from the grass house on the 

 northern bank. Going eastward the ground was covered with bushes and full of 

 steam cracks which made chaining very difficult. Waldron's Ledge looks like a con- 

 tinuation of the wall behind the northern sulphur bank, and on meeting the crater 

 edge it turns eastward toward the large lateral crater Kilauea iki, enclosing this with 

 a circular wall four thousand feet in diameter, and deeper than the main crater at 



present. Descending the steep precipice we came upon the western edge of the gravelly 



[467] 



