448 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



accumulation and difference in level seeming to account for the con- 

 stant direction of the surface-movement. 



Only in a few instances, did one or more of the seeming floes lose 

 its opacity, far enough to exhibit a glow of dull red. The surround- 

 ing lava of the afternoon overflow had cooled, and did not emit a 

 particle of light : while we were looking, a considerable addition was 

 made to the lake, by the falling in of a portion of the Western bank. 

 We remained an hour or more, the Second lake all the while seeming 

 unusually active ; the projecting corner of a mass of fiillen lava-cliff 

 occupying the centre, as at the time of yesterday's visit ; a fragment 

 too bulky to be easily melted away. 



On the 18th, our whole party proceeded along the route up Mauna 

 Roa. A week afterwards, a very extensive overflow from the molten 

 lake covered one-half of the bottom of the central pit; witnessed by 

 Messrs. Brinsmade, Drayton, and Brackenridge. 



My Second visit to the Great Crater was made in returning down 

 Mauna Roa. While yet on the flank of the mountain, a heavy cloud 

 of what looked like blackish smoke rose rather suddenly out of the 

 distant Crater. One or two similar puffs had taken place during the 

 first night I passed on the brink ; on its most remote portion ; and 

 were nnattended with any perceptible change in the surftice of the 

 molten lake. 



Continuing down the mountain, I reached the Great Crater a little 

 before sunset on the 31st; and in the evening, made another visit to 

 the portion of the brink overlooking the molten lake. The mass of 

 rising vapor seemed more dense than before ; and the lake was more 

 deeply sunk below the banks, with its surface less brilliant; owing 

 doubtless in part, to there being a vertical moon ; but there was 

 clearly less action. The Second lake was entirely inactive, showing 

 only a single steady luminous spark ; the pointed mass of black lava 

 maintaining its position, as before; and a similar mass was now pro- 

 jecting out of the large lake near its margin. Two other portions of 

 the bottom of the central pit had become luminous; one of the spots 

 being somewhat extensive, and apparently in the position where a 

 spark had been formerly remarked. 



On the 1st of January, 1841, I continued along the main route of 

 travel ; the path following the brink as far as the isthmus separating 

 the enormous pit-crater, by the natives called "Kilauwea." It is also 

 called the " Old Crater," and is nearly circular in outline, and hardly 



