HOLIDAYS IN HAWAII 



an active volcano. There are no veils of vapor to 

 hide it from you. It appears easy enough to cast a 

 stone into the midst of it, but none of us could quite 

 do it. 



The mass of boiling lava is said to be about one 

 and one half acres in extent. Its surface is covered 

 with large masses of floating crust, black and 

 smooth, like leather or roofing-paper, and between 

 these masses, or islands, the molten lava shows in 

 broad, vivid lines. It is never quiet. When not 

 actually boiling, there is a slow circulatory move- 

 ment, and the great flakes of black crust, suggest- 

 ing scum, drift across from one end to the other and 

 are drawn under the rocks. At one moment only this 

 movement is apparent, then suddenly the mass be- 

 gins to boil furiously all over the surface, and you 

 hear dimly the sound of the bursting bubbles and 

 the crash of the falling lava. When this takes place, 

 the black floating masses are broken up and scat- 

 tered as they are in boiling maple-syrup, but they 

 quickly reunite, and are carried on by the current 

 as before. 



Looking upon this scene with the thought of the 

 traditional lake of fire and brimstone of our fore- 

 fathers in mind, you would say that these black, 

 filthy-looking masses floating about on the surface 

 were the accumulation of all the bad stuff that had 

 been fried out of the poor sinners since hell was in- 

 vented. How much wickedness and uncharity and 



15f5 



