18 THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, 
looking as if built of regular blocks of stone. Small shrubs 
grew by the way, and we picked berries (vaccinium) in 
abundance. At last after a rapid descent on a steep grav- 
elly bank, we stepped into the fresh black lava of the 
crater floor. This floor looked quite smooth and level 
from above, but we found it was very rough and uneven. 
The fresh lava we first met had broken up during the last 
winter and overflowed all the end of Kilauea, and it was 
piled in twisted masses and broken slabs and bubbles. 
Its surface was covered with a thin nitrous crust, which 
crumbled beneath our tread, sounding as hard-frozen snow 
does on a frosty morning, and iiss a distinct path -had 
been worn to Lua Pélé or To great fire-pit which is at the 
south-western end of the crater proper. 
Half a mile of such travelling and we came to a wall of 
hard trachyte, quite unlike the lava of the floor, which 
seems to have been floated up here from the walls below. 
The great blocks which compose it are said to change 
their position from time to time as the floor rises and 
cracks. Fissures of all sizes were common, and from 
many of them steam issued changing the black lava to a 
reddish hue. The action of vapors and gases had pro- 
duced fragments of all shades and colors, some so metallic 
as to closely resemble gold, others red, violet, green, etc. 
Now and then we broke through the thin crust of a bub- 
ble, and although we could not repress a momentary 
shudder as we thought of what might be the result of a 
fall into the regions beneath, the stirring interest. of the 
place drove away considerations of personal er. 
After two miles we came to a fearful erack about three 
or four feet wide, and so deep we could not see the bot- 
tom, but still there was no sound that we did not make 
ourselves, and we could not see any fire. I was certainly 
aig ie ne 2 a ee els Ome a a E ar ecg, 6 ES SO a pee 
Te BAS See 
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