On the Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. 255 



precipice being less steep, a descent to the plain below seemed 

 practicable. It required, however, the greatest caution, as the 

 stones and fragments of rocks frequently gave way under our 

 feet, and rolled down from above ; and with all our care we 

 did not reach the bottom without several falls and slight 

 bruises. The steep which we had descended, was formed of 

 volcanic materials, apparently a light red, and gray kind of 

 lava, vesicular, and lying in horizontal strata, varying in 

 thickness from one to forty feet. In a small number of places, 

 the different strata of lava were, also, rent in perpendicular or 

 oblique directions from the top to the bottom, either by earth- 

 quakes or other violent convulsions of the earth, connected 

 with the action of the adjacent volcano. After walking some 

 distance over the sunken plain, which, in several places, 

 sounded hollow under our feet, we came suddenly to the edge 

 of the great crater, where a spectacle, sublime and appalling, 

 presented itself before us. Astonishment and awe for some 

 moments deprived us of speech, and, like statues, we stood 

 fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. 

 Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form 

 of a crescent, upwards of two miles in length, about a mile 

 across, and apparently eight hundred feet deep. The bottom 

 was filled with lava ; and the south-west and northern parts 

 of it were one vast flood of liquid fire, in a state of terrific 

 ebullition, rolling to and fro its ' fiery surge ' and flaming 

 billows. Fifty-one craters, of varied form and size, rose, like 

 so many conical islands, from the surface of the burning lake. 

 Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke, or 

 pyramids of brilliant flame, and many of them at the same 

 time vomited from their ignited mouths, streams of fluid lava, 

 which rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented 

 sides, into the boiling mass below. The sides of the gulf 

 before us were perpendicular for about 400 feet, when there 

 was a wide horizontal ledge of black, solid lava, of irregular 

 breadth, but extending quite around. Beneath this black ledge, 

 the sides sloped towards the centre, which was, as nearly as 

 we could judge, 300 or 400 feet lower. It was evident that 

 the crater had recently been filled with liquid lava up to this 

 black ledge, and had, by some subterranean canal, emptied 

 itself into the sea, or inundated the low land on the shore. 

 The gray, and in some places apparently calcined sides of the 

 great crater before us ; the fissures which intersected the sur- 

 face of the plain, on which we were standing ; the long banks 

 of sulphur, on the opposite side; the numerous columns of 

 vapour and smoke, that rose at the north and south end of the 

 plain, together with the ridge of steep rocks, by which it was 



surrounded, 



