832 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



perforated by innumerable craters. It is in fact a hollow 

 cone, rising to an altitude of 16,000 feet, having numerous 

 vents over a vast incandescent mass, which doubtless 

 extends beneath the bed of the ocean ; the island forming 

 a pyramidal funnel from the furnace beneath, to the atmo- 

 sphere. The following graphic account of a visit to the 

 crater by Mr. Ellis, affords a striking picture of the splendid, 

 but awful spectacle, which this volcano presents. 



"After travelling over extensive plains, and climbing rugged 

 steeps, all bearing testimony of igneous origin, the crater of Kirauea 

 suddenly burst upon our view. We found ourselves on the edge of 



Lign. 186.— The Volcano of Kirauea, in Hawaii. 

 (From Ellis's Polynesian Researches.) 



a steep precipice, with a vast plain before us, fifteen or sixteen miles 

 in circumference, and sunk from two hundred to four hundred feet 

 below its original level. The surface of this plain was uneven, and 

 strewed over with large stones and volcanic rocks ; and in the centre 

 of it was the great crater, at the distance of a mile and a half from the 

 precipice on which we were standing. We proceeded to the northern 



