Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. b 
that I before mentioned is by far the greatest eurlosity in 
the Islands. I presume that it is the largest known 3 at least 
it is by far the largest of any of whose dimensions I hayé 
seen an I have made four visits to the vol 
was 300 or 400 feet above us. I counted twelve different 
places where lava was red hot, an or four where 
. that 
where I crossed the bottom when I was up there about six 
weeks previous. The lava was then so hot that I could only 
cross the edges, where it had run out. In the middle of this 
place it was still spouting out lava. I crossed the bottom in 
several places that looked quite smooth, as viewed from the 
stances appeared to smell like muriatic acid gas: the gases 
are very suffocating, so much so that the crater is impassable 
in many places. In many places, the escaping of the gas- 
eous substances make a tremendous roaring, like the steam let 
out of the boiler of a steam engine. On the night of the 22d 
of December, 1824, a new voleano broke out at the bottom of 
the large crater ; as soon as it was sufficiently light, I descen- 
ded near to the spot where the lava was both spouting up and 
boiling like a fountain ; some of the lava was thrown forty 
or fifty feet into the air. It was one of the most awful scenes 
that I ever witnessed, to see such a mass of lava, red hot, boil- 
the running lava, I heard a crashing among the rocks of lava 
behind me. I judged it nt to retrace my steps. On 
my visit there six weeks after, I found that it had formed a 
mound of the lava that had issued out, upw of sixty 
above the bottom of the crater. The black ledge that I men- 
