434 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



the side from which the wind drifted away the stifling vapours 

 exhaled from it, and threw stones into the pond of melted rock 

 below. A low cliff bounded the expanse nearly all round. At 

 the base of this cliff opposite us, in three places, a violent 

 surging was constantly taking place, the melted rock being 

 thrown up high above the cliff by violent discharges of gas 

 from beneath. 



The melted rock was thrown against the base of the cliff 

 in waves which, as they surged against it, made a noise like 

 that of waves of the sea beating similarly against rocks. There 

 seemed no tenacity in the melted lava; it splashed about just 

 like water. As the waves fell back from the bases of the cliffs, 

 pendent coagulations of lava were formed for an instant, and 

 hung in the glowing cavities like icicles, but were remelted in 

 a moment by the returning waves. 



The waves when thrown up were glowing brightly with heat. 

 The lake, itself, was covered with a thin black scum of coagu- 

 lated lava with red-hot cracks in it, and the whole scum moved 

 slowly round under the influence of the ebullition taking place 

 at one side as described. 



Close by was another, but smaller pond, where, however, the 

 churning up of the lava was more violent. It occurred here 

 also, as in the other pond, at the bases of the low bounding 

 cliffs only. The waves dashed against the cliffs, threw their 

 spray high into the air above them, and the wind carried part 

 of this spray over the edges of the cliffs, so as to fall on the 

 hard lava platform above. 



The spray masses, cooling as they fell, formed in their track 

 the threads known as " Pele's hair," like fine-spun green glass. 

 Many of the threads could be picked up, each with the small 

 mass of hardened lava still attached. These fallen masses 

 are closely like drops thrown out of a pitch-pot. Some were 

 nearly pear-shaped. Others, which had reached the ground 

 before setting, or when only partially set, had coiled up into 

 various forms as they fell, but nearly all showed an upright fine 

 point, where a hair had been attached to them. 



Pele's hair, thus formed, drifts away with the wind and hangs 

 in felted masses about the rocks, and the birds sometimes 

 gather it, and make their nests entirely of it. 



Between the two ponds was a lava fountain, the one which 

 had been seen playing the night before, but was now quiet. A 

 lava fountain is a tall hollow cone ; an extinguisher as it were, 

 with a hole at the summit, which is built up of successive jets 

 of lava thrown out of a hole, and hardened one over the other. 



The surface of the cone looks as if built up of small masses 

 of pitch thrown on to it haphazard one over another. 



