30-t Mr Ellis on the Burning' Chasms of Ponohohoa, SfC. 



thought we saw flames in one ; but the smoke was generally 

 so dense, and the heat so great, that we could not look long, 

 nor see very distinctly the bottom of any of them ; our legs, 

 hands, and faces, were nearly scorched by the heat. In one 

 of the small fissures we put our thermometer, which had stood 

 at 84°; it instantly rose to 11S°, and probably would have 

 risen much higher could we have held it longer there. 



After walking along the middle of the hollow for nearly a 

 mile, we came to a place where the chasm was about three 

 feet across at its upper edge, though apparently much wider 

 below, and about forty feet in length, and from which a large 

 quantity of lava had been recently vomited. It had been 

 thrown in detached semi-fluid pieces to a considerable distance 

 in every direction, and from both sides of the opening had 

 flowed down in a number of small streams. 



The appearance of the high and long grass through which 

 it had run ; the parched leaves still remaining on one side of 

 a tree, while the other side was reduced to charcoal ; and the 

 strings of lava hanging from some of the branches like stalac- 

 tites, together with the fresh appearance of the shrubs, par- 

 tially overflowed and broken down, convinced us that the lava 

 had been thrown out only a few days before. It was highly 

 scoriaceous, of a different kind from the ancient bed of which 

 the whole valley was composed, being of a jet black colour, 

 and light variegated lustre, brittle and porous, while the an- 

 cient lava was of a gray or reddish colour, compact or broken 

 with difficulty. We found the heat to vary considerably in 

 different parts of the surface ; and at one of the places where 

 a quantity of lava had been thrown out, from which a volume 

 of smoke continually issued, we could stand several minutes 

 together without inconvenience. We at first attributed this 

 to the subterranean fires having become extinct beneath ; but 

 the greater thickness of the crust of ancient lava at that place 

 afterwards appeared to us the most probable cause, as the 

 volumes of smoke and vapour which constantly ascended, indi- 

 cated the vigorous action of fire below. 



Our guide told us that the two large chasms were formed 

 about eleven moons ago ; that nothing else had been visible till 

 two moons back, when a slight earthquake was experienced at 



