«386 Voleano of Kirauew. 
ally skirted with groves and clusters of trees, and fringed 
with a greater variety of vegetation. Here, also, the smoke 
of the volcano was just descried, settling in light fleecy 
clouds to the south-west. Our resting place, at this time, 
was a delightful spot, commanding a full view of the wide 
extent of country over which we had travelled, and around 
i ean, which, from the vast and almost undistinguish- 
ed extent of its horizon, seemed literally an “ illimitable sea.” 
The smooth green sward, under a majestic koa tree, (an aca- 
cia,) nearly encircled by thickets of a younger growth, af- 
orded a refreshing couch on which to take our luncheon. 
We tarried, however, but for a moment, and then hurried on 
to the grand object before us. 
The nearer we approached, the more heavy the column of 
smoke appeared, and excited, to intenseness, our curiosity to 
behold its origin. Under the influence of this excitement, 
we hastened forward with rapid step, regardless of the heat 
of a noonday sun, and the fatigue of a walk of thirty-six 
miles already accomplished. A few minutes before 12 
o'clock, we came suddenly on the brink of a precipice 150 
or 200 feet high, covered with shrubbery and trees. De- 
scending this, by a path nearly perpendicular, we crossed a 
plain, half a mile in width, enclosed, except in the direction 
we were going, by the cliff behind us, and found ourselves, 
a second time, on the top of a precipice 400 feet high, also 
covered with bushes and trees. This, like the former, swept 
off to the right and left, enclosing, in a semi-circular form, 4 
l space, about a quarter of a mile broad, immediately be- 
yond which, lay the tremendous abyss of our search, emitting 
volumes of vapour and smoke, and laboring and groaning, 
as if in irrepressible agony, from the raging of the conflict- 
ing elements, within its bosom. We stood but a moment, to 
take this first distant gaze, then hastily descended the almost 
| height, and crossed the plain to the very brink 
of the crater. ‘ 
