AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



467 



crater is precisely terminal ; and consists of a real crater with two 

 minor pit-craters, all included within a common rim or brink. The 

 main or real crater was found to be nearly circular, " less than two 

 miles in diameter," and about a thousand feet deep, to its black lake- 

 like floor: there was no central pit, and no fire visible; but in various 

 places, small quantities of whitish smoke were rising, barely distin- 

 guishable in the distance. Towards noon, I descended into the crater 

 down the Northeastern slope ; which proved steep and dangerous, from 

 the large blocks not being firmly fixed in their places. The lake-like 

 floor was now perceived to be by no means even ; the lava-layer being 

 ver}^ thick and solid, huge slabs ten to twenty feet across were turned 

 up edgewise, as though the bottom at frequent intervals had been 

 burst up from below ; apparently through the agency of the light cin- 

 dery scoria that rose into view in some of the cracks. The lava-surface 

 that had been more or less upturned, was black and shining, as though 

 recent; yet hardly seemed the product of the latest eruption, "five 

 years" previously. Travelling being in this manner impeded ; when 

 a quarter of the way across, I found the day far advanced, and con- 

 cluded to return. The trip however occupied less time than was anti- 

 cipated, and I regained the brink of the crater after an absence of only 

 three hours. I thence proceeded down the mountain to the 3d Station ; 

 and returned as far as the 2d Station, where I stopped for the night. 



On the morning of the Eighth day, everything was covered with 

 snow ; and as I could do nothing therefore at the summit, I went 

 down the mountain to the 4th Station : and afterwards, reascended 

 as far as the 3d Station, and passed the nighl^ in Lieut. Alden's tent. 

 The night proved unusually cold; water freezing solid within the 

 closed tent, where also the temperature fell to 20° Fahr. — On the 

 summit, Capt. Wilkes found the temperature on one occasion as low 

 as "13° Fahr.:" a severity of cold quite unexpected within the Tro- 

 pics, and attributable, with the sea of clouds, to the isolation of the 

 Hawaiian mountains : in these and other respects, presenting a striking 

 contrast with the Peruvian Andes. 



The Ninth day, I went part way down the mountain, towards the 

 4th Station; and reascended, all the way to the summit; arriving in 

 time for a walk about two miles Southward, keeping along and around 

 the brink of the crater. As the sun went down, the dome-like summit 

 of the mountain was distinctly projected in the opposite direction on 

 the heavens, like the shadow of an eclipse. 



