Volcano of Kirauea. 367 
this kmd, and to behold it without singular and deep emotion; 
demands a familiarity with the more terrible phenomena of 
nature, which few have the opportunity of acquiring. Stands 
ing at an elevation of 1500 feet, we looked into a horrid gulf, 
not less than eight miles in circumference, so directly beneath 
us, that in appearance we might, by a single leap, have plun- 
- ged into its lowest depth. The hideous immensity itself, in« 
dependent of the many frightful images embraced in it, almost 
caused an involuntary closing of the eyes against it. But 
when to the sight, is added the appalling effect of the various 
unnatural and fearful noises, the muttering and sighing, the 
groaning and blowing, the every agonized struggling of the 
mighty action within—as a whole, it is too horrible !—And, 
on the first moment, I felt like one of my friends, who, on 
reaching the brink, recoiled and covered his face, exclaiming, 
‘‘call it weakness, or what you please, but I cannot 
again! 
It was sufficient employment for the afternoon simply to sit 
and gaze on the scene, and though some of our party strolled 
about on the level above, and one or two descended a short 
distance in the crater, the most of our number deferred all in- 
vestigation till the next morning. . 
From what I have already said, you will perceive, that 
this volcano differs, in one respeet, from most others of which 
we have accounts : the crater, instead of being the truncated 
top of a mountain, distinguishable at a distance in eve i- 
rection, is an immense chasm, in an upland country, near thi 
base of the mountain Mouna Roa,* approached, not by as- 
cending a cone, but by descending two vast terraces, and not 
visible from any point, at a greater distance than half a mile: 
a circumstance, which, no doubt, from the suddenness of the 
arrival at it, adds much to the effect of a first look from its 
brink. It is probable, that, originally, it was a cone—but 
assumed its present aspect, it may be centuries ago, from the 
falling in of the whole summit. Of this the precipices we de- 
scended, which entirely encircle the crater in circum 
of. 15 and 20 miles, give strong evidence: they having un- 
questionably been formed by the sinking of the mountain, 
whose foundations had been undermined by the devouring 
* The height of Mouna Roa has never been accurately measured, but va- 
riously estimated from sixteen to eighteen thousand feet, being thus one or 
two thousand feet higher than Mont Blanc, and five or six thousand feet 
