1856.] WELD MAUNA LOA. 169 



it lying in loose flakes, as if it had been thrown into the air and 

 fallen with a splash. The upper crater seemed to be composed of an 

 infinity of steam- and smoke- vents at the foot and on the sides of two 

 large mounds or hills of small loose stones, which no doubt they had 

 thrown up. It sent up volumes of red smoke and partially ignited 

 gases. No doubt at night it would have appeared as actual flame to 

 a considerable height. In one place, above a small mound or crater- 

 mouth, this was most apparent, rising like the panting puffs of a 

 steam-engine. ***** 



The height of this crater is about 1 2,000 feet above the sea-level, 

 being about 1500 feet below the summit of the mountain, which is, 

 I should think, at least six or eight miles distant, the rise from the 

 craters to the summit being extremely gradual. 



Our sleeping-place was about 500 feet below the level of the craters: 

 the night was fine with us ; but, whilst above us the craters rolled 

 up dark columns of smoke, below, over Hilo and Kilauea, raged a 

 magnificent thunderstorm. The level of the top of the clouds was 

 somewhat below us, and along it played flashes of the most vivid 

 lightning, whilst the thunder-peals seemed to roll up from the valley 

 below. Later in the night it rained, and in the morning, though in 

 the tropics, the exterior of the fur-rug in which I slept was white 

 with hoar-frost. 



I will not trouble you with the particulars of our descent from the 

 mountain ; it would be little more than a recapitulation, though we 

 pursued a somewhat difl'erent route. To give some idea of the nature 

 of the walking, I may state that a pair of the stoutest English shoot- 

 ing-boots literally fell to pieces before I had been twenty-four hours 

 on the lava, and were in fact cut through in many places in the 

 first half-hour of our traverse over loose scoriae. Fortunately I had 

 a second pair, which, though lighter, held together about ten hours, 

 just long enough to get me back to Kilauea. The distance from 

 Kilauea to the craters is about thirty miles. ***** 



Before laying down my pen, I may mention that during our stay 

 in the Sandwich group we felt one very slight shock of earthquake 

 when in the Island of Maui ; but were informed that earthquakes of 

 any consequence are quite unkno\\ai there. Recent volcanic erup- 

 tions have been, I believe, entirely confined to the Island of Hawaii, 

 though all the group is volcanic. On Maui there is an enormous 

 extinct crater, said to be twenty-four miles in circumference, and 

 containing cones themselves of mountain-like dimensions. I will only 

 add, that the heights of mountains given are taken on the authority 

 of Wilkes, Douglas, or other sources. 



Chideock House, July 12th, 1856. 



