54 



HA WAIL 



[letter v. 



of rain hissed as it fell upon it. The crust became in- 

 creasingly insecure, and necessitated our walking in single file 

 with the guide in front, to test the security of the footing. I 

 fell through several times, and always into holes full of 

 sulphurous steam, so malignantly acid that my strong, dog-skin 

 gloves were burned through as I raised myself on my hands. 



We had followed a lava-flow for thirty miles up to the crater's 

 brink, and now we had toiled over recent lava for three hours, 

 and by all calculation were close to the pit, yet there was no 

 smoke or sign of fire, and I felt sure that the volcano had died 

 out for once for our especial disappointment. Indeed, I had 

 been making up my mind for disappointment since we left the 

 crater-house, in consequence of reading seven different ac- 

 counts, in which language was exhausted in describing 

 Kilauea. 



Suddenly, just above, and in front of us,. gory drops were 

 tossed in air, and springing forwards we stood on the brink of 

 Hale-mau-mau, which was about 35 feet below us. I think we 

 all screamed, I know we all wept, but we were speechless, for 

 a new glory and terror had been added to the earth. It is the 

 most unutterable of wonderful things. The words of common 

 speech are quite useless. It is unimaginable, indescribable, a 

 sight to remember for ever, a sight which at once took posses- 

 sion of every faculty of sense and soul, removing one altogether 

 out of the range of ordinary life. Here was the real " bottom- 

 less pit " — the " fire which is not quenched — " the place of 

 hell" — "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" — the 

 " everlasting burnings " — the fiery sea whose waves are never 

 weary. There were groanings, rumblings, and detonations, 

 rushings, hissings, and splashings, and the crashing sound of 

 breakers on the coast, but it was the surging of fiery waves 

 upon a fiery shore. But what can I write ! Such words as 

 jets, fountains, waves, spray, convey some idea of order and 

 regularity, but here there was none. The inner lake, while we 

 stood there, formed a sort of crater within itself, the whole lava 

 sea rose about three feet, a blowing cone about eight feet high 

 was formed, it was never the same two minutes together. And 

 what we saw had no existence a month ago, and probably 

 will be changed in every essential feature a month hence. 



What we did see was one irregularly-shaped lake, possibly 

 500 feet wide at its narrowest part, and nearly half a mile at 

 its broadest, almost divided into two by a low bank of lava, 

 which extended nearly across it where it was narrowest, and 



