a 
24 Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaiss 
for some moments deprived us of speech, and, like statues, wd 
stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes rivetted on the abyss be- 
low. Immediately before us yawned an immense gulph, in 
the form of a crescent, upwards of two miles in length, about 
a mile across, and apparently eight hundred feet deep. The 
bottom was filled with lava ; and the south-west and northern 
arts of it were one vast flood of liquid fire, in a state of terrific 
ebullition, rolling to and fro its *‘ fiery surge,” and flaming bil- 
lows. Fifty-one 
sides, into the boiling mass below. The sides of the gulph 
before us, were perpendicular for about 400 feet, when there 
was a wide horizontal ledge of black, solid lava, of irregular 
breadth, but extending quite around. Beneath this black 
ledge, the sides sloped towards the centre, which was, as near- 
ly as we could judge, 300 or 400 feet lower. It was evident 
that the crater had recently been filled with liquid Java up to 
this black ledge, and had, by some subterranean canal, emp- 
tied itself into the sea, or inundated the low land on the shore. 
The gray, and in some places, apparently calcined sides of 
the great crater before us ;. the fissures which intersected the 
banks of sulphur, on the opposite side ; the numerous col- 
umns of vapour and smoke, that rose at the north and south 
end of the plain, together with the ridge of steep rocks, by 
which it was surrounded, rising probably, in some places, 400 
feet in perpendicular height, presented an immense volcanic 
panorama, the effect of which was greatly augmented by the 
constant roaring of the vast furnaces below. 
ground in the vicinity was perceptibly warm, and rent by sev- 
eral deep, irregular chasms, from which steam and thick va- 
pours continually arose. In some places these chasms were 
two feet wide. From thence a dense volume of steam as- 
cended, which was immediately condensed into small drops of 
