KILAUEA. 167 



songs of the birds, the cheerful voices of the natives, were delightful ; 

 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 re- 

 mind 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 he 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 after- 

 noon 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 surrounds Kilauea, and 

 between them is a broad and deep fissure, running in a northeast di- 

 rection, towards the 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 Wal- 

 dron'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 hurri- 

 cane. The wind, according to these officers, came howling over the 

 crater, and when the blast struck their tent, it resembled the discharge 

 of light artillery, making the canvass quiver as if it would be rent in 

 ten thousand shreds. After each blast a deathlike stillness followed, 

 which served to make the roar of the succeeding one more awful. 

 One of the tents belonging to the men was blown down, but they re- 

 mained under it, as on a former occasion. In the morning, it was 

 found that many of the panels of the pendulum-house had been hurled 



