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From our Init we looked down on two partially sunken ledges 

 covered with grass, fern, and bushes, which, as well as the place 

 where our hut stood, were in many spots steaming. In one 

 place especially we noticed a large bank or mound composed appa- 

 rently of a chalky substance, probably a deposit of some chemical 

 salts with a great deal of sulphur, from which issued a consider- 

 able body of steam. Below these ledges lay the great crater like a 

 flat-bottomed round basin. The depth from the top of the highest 

 of the containing walls or clift's to the bottom of the crater, has 

 been calculated at 1,500 feet, though in many places it is con- 

 siderably less. These cliffs or Avails are in most places perpen- 

 dicular, and appear to be composed partly of gravelly clay of a 

 yellowish colour, and partly of dark basaltic or trap rock. The 

 bottom or floor of the crater is constantly changing, quickly melting 

 or hardening. Sometimes part of it is a lake of molten lava, red 

 hot. Some Americans, that we met returning from it as we 

 ascended, assured us that such was the case the day before we 

 arrived. Such a lake is often a mile in length, by half-a-mile 

 wide. When we saw it, however, nothing of the sort was visible. 

 Looking down into the crater it had the appearance of a flat plain 

 of didl lead-coloured lava, more or less broken and rugged in places, 

 and containing an infinity of small moinids or cones, whence 

 issued clouds of smoke, especially towards evening. As night 

 came on, the action of the volcano seemed to increase, and the 

 light of the subterraneous fires was seen in many places. Mr. 

 Stuart-Wortley, who was prevented by indisposition from pro- 

 ceeding with me up INIauna Loa and remained at Kilauea till my 

 return, observed some of the small cones or craters within the 

 great crater occasionally ejecting hot stones and liquid lava, and on 

 the night of my return from ^launa Loa, I observed the sam 

 thing on a small scale. I may here mention that after my return 

 fi"om Mauna Loa, we climbed down a part of the wall where it 

 is not very precipitous or difficult, and descended into the crater. 

 This can easily be done, and some years ago a native chieftainess, 

 named '• Kapiolani," having become a Christian, performed a 

 gallant act, which should ever be remembered to her honour. 

 She descended into the crater, and advancing to a pit of fire 

 defied the Heathen divinity to whom the place was sacred, broke 

 the " Tapu,"' that is its inviolate sanctity, and safely returned 

 to her trembling and awe-struck attendants, who had expected her 

 instant death. Pele' is the name of the goddess who, until that 

 day, was supposed jealously to guard her fiery dominion, and to 

 luxuriate in her bath of flames, as her votaries did in the cool 

 waves that dash over their coral reefs. The capillary lava, which 

 is supposed to be formed by the action of wind on liquid lava, 

 strongly resembles hair of reddish, brownish, or golden hue, and is 

 called by the natives Pele"s hair ; I brought away several speci- 

 mens, but regret that I have none by me. The floor of the cratei- 

 of Kilauea, on which Ave spent an hour or tAvo, is simply the cooled 

 upper crust of fused lava ; the numerous small moimds or miniature 

 craters scattered over it, have orifices at their tops or in their 

 sides like the mouths of limekiln, often double, through which 

 you may look into the red hot depths below, and into caverns of 



