202 Miscellanies. 
of September, I made a short visit to the volcano, and found that 
there had been a tremendous action in and about the crater; the 
crater had been filled up to the black ledge and about fifty feet 
above, about nine hundred feet in the whole, «since I first visited it, 
and it had now again sunk down to nearly the same depth as at first, 
leaving, as usual, a boiling caldron at the south end. The inside of 
the crater was entirely changed; the earthquake in January last had 
rent in twain the walls of the crater on the east side, from the top to 
the bottom, producing seams from a few inches to several yards in 
width, from which the region around was deluged with lava. The 
chasms commenced at the bottom of the crater, rending every thing 
in their way, and took an easterly direction up the perpendicular walls 
of the immense caldron, within a few yards of where Mr. Stewart, 
Lord Byron, myself and others have slept, when visiting that awful 
place; so that the very spot where I have lain quietly many times, is 
entirely overrun with lava; almost all the specimens in the brown 
kapa were taken from the Hite where I have slept, as also Lord 
Byron and others. 
Huge rocks were thrown in various directions; the.chasms con- 
tinued eastward, rending the causeway that connects the two cra- 
ters, the mass of which, with the region around, has sunk about 
a foot, as is evident from the wails farther back. The path in front 
of the lodging place, by which we descend into the abyss, is now 
rendered entirely impassable, by the rending, of the rocks and de- 
luging of the lava, so that another path, that is more difficult, is the 
only one remaining. 1 found it a much more arduous task to descend 
to the bottom than formerly; after travelling from the north to the 
south end, I found myself on the brink of a burning lake or glade, 
if the word will apply to this scene. Here was an opening in the 
lava, about twenty feet below, sixty or eighty rods long, and twenty 
or thirty rods wide; the whole mass of liquid and semi-fluid lava 
was boiling, foaming and dashing its fiery billows against the rocky 
shore ; the mass was in motion, running from north to south, at the 
rate of two or three miles an hour, boiling up asa spring at one 
end and running to the other. 
Mr. Stewart’s description of the bottom of the crater, as coneined 
in his journal of his residence on the island, page 381, gives a fair 
account of the bottom of the crater, as it at present appears, with 
the exception of the lake or glade. Imagine to yourself, a river 
congealing with the cold in the winter season, the current floating 
