VOLCANO IN OWIIYIIEE. 
631 
form of' a crescent^ about two miles in iengtb, from north-east to 
south-west, nearly a mile in width, and apparently eight hundred feet 
deep. The bottom was covered with lava, and the’ south-west and 
northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state 
of terrific ebullition, roiling to and fro its “ fiery snrge"^ and flaming 
billows. Fifty-one conical islands, of varied form and size, contain- 
ing so many craters, rose either round the edge or from the surface 
of the burning lake. Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray 
smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame ; and several of these at the 
same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of lava, which 
rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented sides into the 
boiling mass below. 
The existence of these conical craters led us to conclude, that 
the boiling caldron of lava before us did not form the focus of the 
volcano ; that this mass of melted lava was comparatively shallow ; 
and that the basin in which it was contained was separated, by a 
stratum of solid matter, from the great volcanic abyss, which con- 
stantly poured out its melted contents through these numerous craters 
into this upper reservoir. We were further inclined to this opinion, 
from the vast columns of vapour continually ascending from the 
chasms in the vicinity of the sulphur banks and pools of water, for 
they must have been produced by other fire than that which caused 
the ebullition in the lava at the bottom of the great crater, and also 
by noticing a number of small craters in vigorous action, situated 
high up the sides of the great gulf, and apparently quite detached 
from it. The streams of lava which they emitted rolled down into 
the lake, and mingled with the melted mass there, which, though 
thrown up by difterent apertures, had perhaps been originally fused 
in one vast furnace. 
The sides of the gulf before us, although composed of different 
strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular for about four hundred feet, 
and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black lava of irregular 
breadth, but extending completely round. Beneath this ledge the 
sides sloped gradually towards the burning lake, which was, as nearly 
as we could judge, three hundred or four hundred feet lower. It was 
evident that the large crater had been recently filled with liquid lava 
up to this black ledge, and had, by some subterranean canal, emptied 
itself into the sea, or upon the low land on the shore ; and in all pro- 
bability this evacuation had caused the inundation of the Kapapala 
coast, which took place, as we afterwards learned, about three weeks 
prior to our visit. The gray, and in some places apparently calcined 
sides of the great, crater before us; the fissures which intersected 
the surface of the plain on which we were standing; the long banks 
of sulphur on the opposite side of the abyss ; the vigorous action of 
the numerous small craters on its borders ; the dense .columns of 
vapour and smoke that rose at the north and south end of the plain ; 
together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was surrounded, 
rising probably in some places three hundred or four hundred feet in 
perpendicular height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the 
effect of which was greatly augmented by the constant roaring of the 
vast furnaces below. 
✓ 
