LETTER V.] 



THE CRATER OF KILAUEA. 



53 



' fissured and upheaved everywhere by earthquakes, hot under- 

 neath, and emitting a hot breath. 



After more than an hour of very difficult climbing we reached 

 the lowest level of the crater, pretty nearly a mile across, pre- 

 senting from above the appearance of a sea at rest, but on 

 crossing it we found it to be an expanse of waves and con- 

 volutions of ashy-coloured lava, with great cracks filled up with 

 black, iridescent rolls of lava, only a few weeks old. Parts of 

 it are very rough and ridgy, jammed together like field ice, or 

 compacted by rolls of lava which may have swelled up from 

 beneath, but the largest part of the area presents the appear- 

 ance of huge coiled hawsers, the ropy formation of the lava 

 rendering the illusion almost perfect. These are riven by deep 

 cracks which emit hot, sulphurous vapours. Strange to say, in 

 one of these, deep down in that black and awful region, 

 three slender metamorphosed ferns were growing, exquisite 

 forms, the fragile heralds of the great forest of vegetation, 

 which probably in coming years will clothe this pit with beauty. 

 On our right there was a precipitous ledge, and a recent flow 

 of lava had poured over it, cooling as it fell into columnar 

 shapes as symmetrical as those of Staffa. It took us a full 

 hour to cross this deep depression, and as long to master a 

 steep, hot ascent of about 400 feet, formed by a recent lava- 

 flow from Hale-mau-mau into the basin. This lava hill is an 

 extraordinary sight — a flood of molten stone, solidifying as it 

 ran down the declivity, forming arrested waves, streams, eddies, 

 gigantic convolutions, forms of snakes, stems of trees, gnarled 

 roots, crooked water-pipes, all involved and contorted on a 

 gigantic scale, a wilderness of force and dread. Over one 

 steeper place the lava had run in a fiery cascade about 100 feet 

 wide. Some had reached the ground, some had been arrested 

 midway, but all had taken the aspect of stems of trees. In 

 some of the crevices I picked up a quantity of very curious 

 filamentose lava, known as " Pele's hair." It resembles coarse 



■ spun glass, and is of a greenish or yellowish-brown colour. In 

 many places the whole surface of the lava is covered with this 

 substance seen through a glazed medium. During eruptions, 

 when fire-fountains play to a great height, and drops of lava 

 are thrown in all directions, the wind spins them out in clear 

 green or yellow threads two or three feet long, which catch 

 and adhere to projecting points. 



As we ascended, the flow became hotter under our feet, as 

 well as more porous and glistening. It was so hot that a shower 



