238 Notice of Hawaii, (Owyhee,) and its Volcanic Regions, &e. 
the eye could not reach; and filled with vapor scalding hot! ‘To have. 
fallen into it must have been instant and. irrecoverabie. destruction, 
In another place the path led over a crack—to all appearance without 
bottom, several feet in width, and extending on either hand as far as 
we could distinguish—by a single narrow arch of a foot’s breadth 
only, in the manner of a natural bridge, from which a deviation of a 
single step would have been fatal. ett 
~ After traversing this singularly located glen, we found ourselves 
_ still four or five hundred feet above the ledge, within the crater: and 
_ the descent to it, very abrupt and difficult, from the hardness and 
smoothness of the lava of which, chiefly, it is constituted. In many 
places, large streams of no very ancient date—since they cooled and 
hardened in their running form—marked the sides of the cliff:,and 
by a principal one of these (resembling a cascade still pouring down 
the face of the hill,) most of our party, in slow and necessarily cau- 
tious progress, reached the offset, or natural gallery, running round 
ie: hanges that have taken place since 1825, first became 
strikin The general features were much the same; but almost 
every spot, when looked upon in detail, shows evidence of new and 
tremendous action of fire, and of convulsion after convulsion, that 
must have shaken every thing far and wide. The greatest alteration, 
however, is that of which I had been apprised namely, the filling up 
_ + of the whole surface below the ledge, at least two hundred feet. The 
depth below this, was estimated by Lord Byron’s party, at five hus- 
‘dred feet—at present it cannot, on an average, be more than two 
hundred. Many of the highest of the cones have, thus, been much 
reduced in their loftiness ; and many have entirely disappeared. Jn 
-all other respects, the general surface and aspect are the same: there 
is however much more fire in the north end than formerly, and the very 
route we took, in crossing the bottom: at that time, is now a chain 
liquid lakes, from one side to the other. ~ , 
My first walk on the ledge was westward—the same direction @ 
which I went when with Lord Byron—but I had not proceeded half 
the length of the northern side, before the way was interrupted by @ 
sulphur cone, which has risen on the ledge ; and which was surround- 
ed by such a suffocating vapor, as to prevent my passing. I therefore 
__ ¥eturned to my companions, who were busily employed, in gathering 
curious specimens of a variety of kinds, till 1 should return to ad 
company them down the remaining distance to the bottom. 
