AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



449 



less than a thousand feet deep ; seeming deeper than the neighboring 

 real crater, perhaps in consequence of its inferior area. The Isthmus 

 between the two rises to within about two hundred feet of the plain 

 above, and has a flat-topped almost level summit, at the narrowest 

 place half a mile or so in width. On this summit, notwithstanding 

 the elevation above the " black ledge," there is a congealed lava- 

 stream ; derived from the Eruption of 1832, which commenced by 

 splitting this Isthmus. The fluid lava squeezed upwards out of the 

 crevice, flowed afterwards mainly Eastward into the pit-crater ; filling 

 tlie bottom with the lake that imparts the deceptive semblance of a 

 seat of volcanic action. A minor portion of the squeezed-up lava flowed 

 back into the crater from which it originated ; and in this direction, 

 refluent lava had issued out of the crevice all the way down to the 

 "black ledge," as already intimated. Excepting this manifestation, 

 the Eruption of 1832 was a " silent discharge ;" the vast mass of fluid 

 lava passing ofi" somewhere under the ground and under the sea. On 

 arriving immediately afterwards, Rev. Mr. Green and Rev. Mr. Dibble 

 found that the Great " Crater had emptied itself completely, and the 

 fire was nearly all out : the whole upper bank to the Northward had 

 settled down about eighteen inches, and new crevices had opened." 



Turning away from the Great Crater, I proceeded to the half-way 

 house ; and on the 2d, reached Hilo : the entire distance proving a 

 walk of ten hours, descending all the way. 



On the 8th, Mr. Brackenridge and myself set out on the ascent of 

 Mauna Kea : from which excursion we returned on the 19th. 



The new lava of the Eruption in May. On the 20th, in com- 

 pany with John Ely and two native guides, I proceeded from Hilo 

 Eastward ; over the ancient lava-streams, that after encroaching on 

 the sea, had been broken ofi" in a continuously vertical cliff", twelve to 

 twenty feet high along this whole portion of the coast. At two or three 

 points widely apart, the sea proved accessible ; together with a spring 

 of fresh-water gushing out at the tide-level, like those on Savaii in 

 the Samoan Group. The lava-surface on which we were travelling 

 was more or less uneven and rough ; with, by an exception, slight 

 patches of woods, in the close vicinity of the sea. The Pandanus 

 was especially abundant, of itself forming more or less distinct groves; 

 with Gonvolvuli ascending, and the undergrowth often tangled with 

 Oleichenia; hut the Metrosideros was the principal tree; and another 

 mountain plant was in one instance met Avith, an Epacrideons shrub. 



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