230 Volcano in Owhyhee. 
broad base and rough indented sides, composed of loose slags, 
or hardened streams of lava, and whose summit would have 
presented a rugged wall of scoria, forming the rim of a mighty 
cauldron. But, instead of this, we found ourselves on the 
edge of a steep precipice, with a vast plain before us, fifteen 
or sixteen miles in circumference, and sunk from two hundred 
to four hundred feet below its original level. ‘The surface of 
this plain was uneven, and strewed over with huge stones and 
voleanic rock, and in the centre of it was the great crater, at 
the distance of a mile and a half from the place where we were 
standing. : ‘ é i We walked on 
to the north end of the ridge, where, the precipice being less 
steep, a descent to the plain below seemed practicable. 
3 7 With all our care, we did not reach 
the bottom without falls and slight bruises. 
: : Atter walking some distance over the 
sunken plain, which in several places sounded hollow under 
our feet, we at length came to the edge of the great crater, 
where a spectacle sublime, and even appalling, presented itself 
before us. Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, 
in the form of acrescent, about two miles in length, from N.E. 
to S.W. nearly a mile in width, and apparently eight hundred 
feet deep. The bottom was covered with lava, and the S.W. 
and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, 
in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its ‘fiery surge’ 
and flaming billows. Fifty-one conical islands of varied form 
and size, containing so many craters, rose either round the 
edge, or from the surface of the burning lake ; 22 constantly 
emitted columns of gray smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame ; 
and several of these at the same time vomited from their ig- 
nited mouths streams of lava which rolled in blazing torrents 
down their black indented sides, into the boiling mass below. 
The existence of these conical craters led us to conclude that 
the boiling cauldron of lava before us did not form the focus of 
the volcano; that this mass of melted lava was comparatively 
shallow; and that the basin in which it was contained was se- 
parated by a stratum of solid matter from the great volcanic 
abyss, which constantly poured out its melted contents through 
these numerous craters into this upper reservoir. 
“The sides of the gulf before us, although composed of 
different strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular for about 
400 feet, and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black 
lava of irregular breadth, but extending completely round: be- 
neath this ledge, the sides sloped gradually towards the burn- 
ing lake, which was, as nearly as we could judge, three hun- 
dred or four hundred feet lower. It was evident that the large 
crater 
