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miles from Hilo, whicK it threatened, but it did not advance much 

 further, and ceased to flow not long after I left. 



Our first good view of the eruption from Hilo was at night, 

 from the deck of a ship in the bay, as the trees obstructed the view 

 from the shore. The distant craters were scarcely visible, but the 

 burning forests above and behind the town showed the front of 

 the advancing lava torrent lightening up the night with a mighty 

 glare, with sometimes a column of red light shooting up, occasioned 

 probably either by an explosion of the half-cooled upper crust (from 

 imder which little streamlets of red hot lava keep running out and 

 covering fresh ground like fiery serpents in the underwood) or by 

 dried trees falling into the fire. The inhabitants of Hilo were 

 justly alarmed, and many were preparing to put their eft'ects on 

 board ship. I M'as particularly requested when it became known 

 that I was about to attempt the ascent, to endeavour to ascertain as 

 nearly as possible the rate at which the lava was flowing, that it 

 might be known whether the flow was moderating since Mr. Coan's 

 expedition. Most people, however, said that I should never get to 

 the craters ; Mr. Coan said it would take me a week or more. 

 He kindly pursuaded a nati\'e who had been with him to accompany 

 me, and with much difficulty I engaged two more, all strong and 

 active men. We got horses to take us as far as Kilauea, and after 

 completing our arrangements and spending a few pleasant days at 

 Hilo we started. 



The ascent, though very gradual, may be said to commence at 

 Hilo itself. The weather was inipropitious, and where the path was 

 not old lava it was deep mud ; indeed these two comi^onent parts 

 of our track were so mixed up together that our horses were soon 

 tired out by plunging along from hard to soft, and it was not till the 

 second afternoon that we reached Kilauea, a distance not very much 

 over 30 miles. The country varied between w^oods and jungles, 

 chiefly of a tree of the myrtle family, bearing red and sometimes 

 yellow flowers, not unlike the New Zealand Rata (Metrodderos ?) 

 and open tracts of fern " Ti" (Dracctna terminalis), which is also 

 the Maori name for similar species, and grass. A little before 

 reaching Kilauea we entered the region of the Koa tree, already 

 mentioned, which is a useful timber tree, and also remarked a 

 handsome yellow acacia, the raspberry, strawberry, and some tree 

 ferns ; the soil, of a red colour, was covered with masses of scoriae, 

 and in ni-iny places we crossed hardened streams of old lava. 



Our journey had been about 30 or 3.5 miles, at first about south 

 by west, and latterly more westerly, when, on the afternoon of 

 jS'ovember 14th, we stood on the brink of the great crater of 

 Kilauea, 4104 feet above the sea. We found a grass-built hut on 

 the upper rim of tlie crater, and here we took up our quarters. 

 The mountain of Kilauea may best be described as the base of 

 a broad low truncated cone, standing on a high level plateavi ; an 

 excrescence, as it were, growing out of the side of the huge Mauna 

 Loa. It looks as if the apex had subsided, leaving in the centre 

 of the mountain a flat-floored sunken crater the upper rim of 

 which is about seven miles in circumference ; sometimes the level 

 of the bottom of the crater is tapped and lowered by undei'ground 

 eruptions that burn out at a lower level on the side of the moiuitain. 



