KILAUEA. 179 



together with an excellent supper, made us comfortable, and we were 

 soon asleep on the dried grass. 



The next morning, when I awoke, all nature seemed to be alive : 

 the songs of the birds, the cheerful voices of the natives, were de- 

 lightful; the green foliage gave every thing an air of spring. We 

 were so stiff as scarcely to be able to move, which was all that now 

 remained to remind us of the scenes we had left, and the fatigues we 

 had undergone. When we again set off, it was amusing to see the 

 whole party moving along with their stiff and aching limbs, trying 

 to appear but little fatigued. At twelve o'clock we reached the 

 station where we had abandoned our chairs, and I never was more 

 relieved than when I reached mine, for I was quite unable to 

 walk any further. Here, also, we were met by the natives with 

 fruit; indeed, every step we took seemed to be restoring us to the 

 comforts of life. Late in the afternoon of the 14th we reached the 

 crater of Kilauea, after an absence of twenty-eight days, eight of 

 which had been consumed in travelling, six in going up and two in 

 returning from the summit. 



The dome of Mauna Loa looked full as beautiful to the eye as it 

 did on our way up, but the experience we had had of its surface, and 

 the difficulties we had encountered, were not so soon to be forgotten, 

 and arrayed it in different colours to the mind. On passing down 

 the last strip of Mauna Loa, we came to a spot which had apparently 

 been a crater of large size. What we supposed to have been the 

 bottom of it, is considerably below the extensive plain which sur- 

 rounds Kilauea, and between them is a broad and deep fissure, 

 running in a northeast direction, towards tire sulphur-bank on the 

 north side of the volcano of Kilauea, which terminates in a precipice 

 from fifty to two hundred feet in depth, showing that the whole plain 

 around Kilauea must have sunk at some remote period. 



Wishing to be more protected from the cold wind that draws from 

 Mauna Kea (on the north), we passed over to what I have called 

 Waldron's Ledge (after Purser Waldron of the Vincennes), which is 

 the usual and by far the most commodious point to encamp at, 

 besides offering one of the most beautiful views of the volcano. 



The day on which we left Lieutenant Budd and Mr. Eld at the 

 crater, proved very stormy, and the night one of the severest they 

 had experienced, being extremely cold, and the wind approaching a 

 hurricane. The wind, according to these officers, came howling over 



