On the Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. 191 



three or four where it was spouting up lava thirty or forty 

 feet. The depth of the crater is probably above 1000 feet; 

 down about 500 feet is a black ledge, which appears to have 

 been formed by the crater's being filled up with lava one half 

 way, and the lava being discharged by an outlet under ground. 

 The crater appears to be filling up, for when I was there the 

 last time, I perceived that the lava had run 30 or 40 feet 

 over a place where I crossed the bottom when I was up there 

 about six weeks previous. The lava was then so hot that I 

 could only cross the edges, where it had run out. In the 

 middle of this place it was still spouting out lava. I crossed 

 the bottom in several places that looked quite smooth, as viewed 

 from the top ; but on descending I found the surface to be 

 made up of hills and valleys. Dense sulphurous fumes are 

 ascending from almost all parts of the bottom ; some of the 

 gaseous substances appeared to smell like muriatic acid gas: 

 the gases are very suffocating, so much so that the crater is 

 impassable in many places. In many places, the escaping of 

 the gaseous substances makes a tremendous roaring, like the 

 steam let out of the boiler of a steam-engine. On the night of 

 the 22d of December 1824, a new volcano broke out at the 

 bottom of the large crater ; as soon as it was sufficiently light, 

 I descended near to the spot where the lava was both spouting 

 up and boiling like a fountain ; some of the lava was thrown 

 forty or fifty feet into the air. It was one of the most awful 

 scenes that I ever witnessed, to see such a mass of lava, red 

 hot, boiling and running like water, although it was not so 

 liquid as water : by sun-rise it had run fifty or sixty rods, and 

 eight or ten rods wide. As I was alone, standing within a few 

 rods of the running lava, I heard a crashing among the rocks 

 of lava behind me. I judged it prudent to retrace my steps. 

 On my visit there six weeks after, I found that it had formed 

 a mound of the lava that had issued out, upwards of sixty feet 

 above the bottom of the crater. The black ledge that I men- 

 tioned above, extends all round the crater except a few yards; 

 it forms a kind of stair, although it is half a mile wide some 

 part of the way. The crater upon this ledge measures five and 

 a half miles in circumference. Capillary volcanic glass is in 

 great abundance in some places upon the bottom, to the depth 

 of two or three inches ; and some is to be seen fifteen or twenty 

 miles from the crater, drifted bv the wind and lodged in the 

 crevices of the lava. There are also great quantities of pumice 

 stone about the crater, but so very light and porous, that it is 

 driven about by every puff of wind. It is so delicate in its 

 texture that it is very difficult to preserve the specimens. 

 Fifteen or twenty miles in a southerly direction, the steam and 



vapours 



