KILAUEA. 169 



The sulphur-bank is about one hundred and fifty yards in length 

 by about forty wide, and is separated from the perpendicular basaltic 

 rocks that bound the plain, by a chasm from which steam issues in 

 quantities. By descending into it as far as the heat would permit, 

 we obtained some beautiful crystallized masses of sulphur, which we 

 found in small cavities. In some parts of the chasm, the temperature 

 was at the boiling point. The bank seemed to be formed by the 

 decomposition of the rock, through the agency of heat and water. 

 Without the chasm, the bank was formed of an unctuous, red and 

 blue clay, or rather marl, so nearly allied to a pigment, that I under- 

 stood it had been used as a wash or paint by the missionaries. The 

 steam from below seemed to be penetrating and saturating the whole 

 bank. We returned to our encampment well laden with specimens. 



During the day I had signals put up on the points surrounding the 

 crater, and made every preparation for surveying it the next day. 

 Dr. Judd volunteered to go down into the crater, with a party of 

 natives, to endeavour to obtain some gases with the apparatus we had 

 Drought from the ship, (which we disinterred here,) and at the same 

 time to procure some liquid lava, by dipping it up from the boiling 

 cauldron. For this purpose we thought of many contrivances, but at 

 last fixed upon one of the frying-pans, as the article best calculated to 

 effect the object when lashed to a long pole. 



On the 16th, Dr. Judd and I set out on our several tasks. The 

 various instruments with which we were provided caused us much 

 amusement; but I was somewhat uneasy and doubtful relative to his 

 descent and prospect of obtaining the objects of his search, for I knew 

 the state of the crater; but the doctor, always enthusiastic, parted from 

 me in high spirits, with his party of natives, after receiving many cau- 

 tions not to be too venturesome. I waited to see him pass over the 

 edge of the bank, and then went to my work of triangulation. 



The wind was strong from the northeast, and though clear, the 

 weather was unpleasant. After measuring my base, I visited all the 

 stations around the crater in their turn. The banks, like those on 

 the south side, are formed of sand and pumice, of which the former 

 is most abundant, and occurs in strata, of from six to eight inches in 

 depth. On the southwest side of the crater we did not find the gases 

 so perceptible or suffocating as I had been led to expect from the 

 natives' account, who urged numerous objections in order to prevent 

 my going there, for they imagined that they would have a difficult 

 journey. They told many stories of persons falling through the 

 sand : this I could not understand until one of my men suddenly 

 sunk in up to his middle, which at once caused us to make a halt, 



vol. iv. p 22 



