116 Eruption of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. 
masses of rock, many more than one hundred tons in weigh, 1 
obstruct the path and form abutments to the stone pillam- 
small buttress hills, similar to those observed in front of thehi | 
basaltic wall in Koolau, Oahu. So also in the deep crater 118 
the eastern wall has lost much of its perpendicular dip, 
has become shelving in part. ne | 
The crater itself was entirely devoid of liquid lava; no mtak | 
descence anywhere ; pitchy darkness hovered over the abysstie 
first night. I say the first night, because during the secon ; 
night of our stay, between twelve and one A. M., sot 
were heard again, and light reappeared for a short time mM 
South Lake. White vapors of steam issued from the me 
a hundred places, but of those stifling, sulphurous and '. 
gases formerly so overpowering in the neighborhood ce ; 
our footing for a minute or more, although in many places 
e 
7 an pr 4 
erable be of the other half. It is greatest in the northet q 
and rather g and gentle in its southern portion. + om 
ing upon the depressed floor from the southern lake, !™ 4 
Some time before we became fully aware of its existence, 
nce, : 
great verte: the principal eta ft q 
01 roceeded .carthquake had been in the nor 
ie ts P --G in that direction on leaving the 9”. | 
consithivabla arrived at about the middle of the depress”, 
the west “Ha in the ground presented itself on our lef 
: ving ascend this, we found ourselves at 
