KILAUEA. 191 



Our track from the sulphur-banks was directly to the place of 

 ascent. Laden with specimens, we returned, quite worn out, to our 

 encampment before sunset. Lieutenant Budd, who had not suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the end of the black ledge, returned shortly after 

 us. On his side, the air was too hot and stifling to permit this object 

 to be accomplished ; and, although I was watching for him with my 

 spyglass, I could see nothing of him after we parted. 



In doing this, I perceived a curious effect of refraction, produced 

 by looking over the lakes, when the line of sight passed through the 

 heated columns of air as they arose from the fluid below. The 

 opposite bank seemed at times in motion, dancing up and down, as 

 the breakers on the sea-shore are sometimes seen to do. The strati- 

 fication of the rocks seemed to be twisting and dancing up and down 

 also. 



After being at this volcano four days, I was as little disposed to 

 leave it as at first ; it is one of those places that grow in interest, and 

 excite all the energies both of body and mind ; the one to undergo 

 the necessary fatigue, and the other to comprehend the various 

 phenomena. 



The discharge from the large lake during the night of the 17th, 

 must have been equal to fifteen million cubic feet of melted rock : 

 this, undoubtedly, found cavities to receive it on the line of the erup- 

 tion. It is impossible to calculate the discharge from the smaller, or 

 Judd's Lake, but supposing it had continued as rapid as it was at the 

 first filling, it would have thrown out, by the time I was there next 

 day, upwards of two hundred million cubic feet of lava. It will 

 readily be perceived, that with such a flood, it would be possible, 

 within the lapse of a period comparatively short, geologically speak- 

 ing, for a mound the size of Mauna Loa to be heaped up. However 

 large the above numbers may seem to be, we have reason to suppose, 

 from appearances, that the " boiling up" and overflow of the terminal 

 crater of Mauna Loa must have been far greater, so much so indeed 

 that the outpourings of Kilauea cannot bear a comparison with it. 

 Its whole height, of more than six thousand feet above the plain of 

 lava, appears, as I have before noticed, to be entirely owing to the 

 accumulation of ejected matter. 



All the parties having arrived, I despatched them to Hilo, with the 

 exception of Lieutenant Alden, who was ordered to pass by the cone 

 of Tulani, an old crater on the north flank of Mauna Loa, in order to 



