UPOLU. 321 
back of Apia; its flattened top—concave in some views—point out its 
crater character to the traveller, before he lands on the island. 
To reach the crater, we took the path over the mountains lead- 
ing through the inland village, Siusenga. This village lies at the 
northern foot of the range, three miles from the sea, and forty feet 
above tide level. Three miles from Siusenga, we came upon 
one of the mountain gorges, and followed its right bank for nearly 
a mile. Its sides were very precipitous, yet like the rest of the 
mountains, overgrown with forests. The depth could not be under four 
hundred feet. ‘Thus far, and for the following mile, our ascent was 
very gradual. The path then became steep, and on account of the 
mud, quite fatiguing; were it not for the entwining roots of the 
trees that were bare along the path, the way, owing to the rain of the 
preceding night, would have been scarcely passable. A mile carried 
us beyond these steep declivities. About eight miles from Siusenga 
we left the main mountain path, and followed a half-beaten track to 
the southward and eastward ; and going in this direction a mile and a 
half, we reached the crater and the crater lake Lanu-To’o. 
A ridge a hundred feet high surrounds very regularly a circular 
lake about two thousand feet in diameter. We passed the highest 
peak of the ridge about two hundred yards before reaching the bor- 
ders of the lake. ‘The sbores were low, and on the northwest side 
the waters deepened slowly; but on the opposite side the banks were 
abrupt, and the deciivity of the enclosing ridge less inclined. The 
greatest depth obtained by soundings was sixty feet.* <A line of 
soundings across the lake from northwest to southeast gave succes- 
sively two and a half, four, five, six, seven, nine and a half, nine, nine, 
nine, eight and a half, six, four and a half, two, fathoms. ‘The sur- 
rounding ridge is clothed with the ordinary forest foliage, enhanced 
in beauty by the tree-fern with its broad star of finely-worked fronds, 
and the graceful plumes of a large mountain palm. ‘The poets of the 
island have appreciated the beauty of the place, and allude to the per- 
petual verdure which adorns the borders of the lake, in the following 
lines :— 
“ Lanu-to’o e le toi’a e lau mea.” 
“‘ Lanu-to’o untouched by withered leaf.” 
I observed no streams of lava around the lake. A few fragments of 
* These soundings were taken by Mr. Couthouy, who paddled himself across on two 
logs lashed together, and used a vine loaded with a stone for a lead. 
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