88 HA WAIIAN G UIDE B OK. 



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 ^aere, form- 

 ed 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 togeth- 

 er. 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 which was raised visibly before our 

 eyes. The sides of the nearest part of the lake were ab- 

 solutely perpendicular, but nowhere more than 40 feet 

 high ; but opposite to us on the far side of the larger 

 lake they were bold and craggy, and probably not less 

 than 150 feet high. On one side there was an expanse 

 entirely occupied with blowing cones, and jets of steam 

 or vapor. The lake has been known to sink 400 feet, 

 and a month ago it overflowed its banks. The promi- 

 nent object was fire in motion, but the surface of the 

 double lake was continually skinning over for a second 

 or two with a cooled crust of a lustrous grey- white, like 

 frosted silver, broken by jagged cracks of a bright rose 

 color. The movement was nearly always from the sides 

 to the centre, but the movement of the centre itself ap- 

 peared independent and always took a southerly direc- 

 tion. Before each outburst of agitation there was 



