letter xxix.] HORRORS OF HALEMAUMAU. 



257 



panied with heavy subterranean rumblings and detonations. 

 The chimney, so far as I could see, opened out gradually down- 

 wards to a great width, and appeared to be about forty feet 

 deep ; and at its base there was an abyss of lashing, tumbling, 

 restless fire, emitting an ominous, surging sound, and breaking 

 upwards with a fury which threatened to blow the cone and the 

 crust on which it stands, into the air. 



The heat was intense, and the stinging sulphurous gases, 

 which were given forth in large quantities, most poisonous. 

 The group of cones west of this one, was visited by Mr. Green ; 

 but he found it impossible to make any further explorations. 

 He has seen nearly all the recent volcanic phenomena, but 

 says that these cones present the most " infernal " appearance 

 he has ever witnessed. We returned for a last look at Hale- 

 maumau, but the smoke was so dense, and the sulphur fumes 

 so stifling, that, as in a fearful dream, we only heard the 

 thunder of its hidden surges. I write thunder, and one speaks 

 of the lashing of waves ; but these are words pertaining to the 

 familiar earth, and have no place in connection with Kilauea. 

 The breaking lava has a voice all its own, full of compressed 

 fury. Its sound, motion, and aspect are all infernal. Hellish, 

 is the only fitting term. 



We are dwelling on a cooled crust all over Southern Hawaii, 

 the whole region is recent lava, and between this and the sea 

 there are several distinct lines of craters thirty miles long, all 

 of which at some time or other have vomited forth the innu- 

 merable lava streams which streak the whole country in the 

 districts of Kau, Puna, and Hilo. In fact, Hawaii is a great 

 slag. There is something very solemn in the position of this 

 crater-house : with smoke and steam coming out of every pore 

 of the ground, and in front the huge crater, which to-night 

 lights all the sky. My second visit has produced a far deeper 

 impression even than the first, and one of awe and terror 

 solely. 



Kilauea is altogether different from the European volcanoes 

 which send lava and stones into the air in fierce, sudden 

 spasms, and then subside into harmlessness. Ever changing, 

 never resting, the force which stirs it never weakening, raging 

 for ever with tossing and strength like the ocean : its labours 

 unfinished, and possibly never ' to be finished, its very unex- 

 pectedness adds to its sublimity and terror, for until you reach 

 the terminal wall of the crater, it looks by daylight but a 

 ,smoking pit in the midst of a dreary stretch of waste land. 



