34 
Volcano of Kirauea . 
which have been subjected to the action of fire, such as 
sulphur and ammonia. While the overlying beds show 
the gradual thickening of the igneous matter in the 
crater, the uniform traces of atmospheric action, over the 
whole surface laid bare, testify that the sinking of the 
lava must have been sudden. Now, supposing it was 
instantaneous, granting the circumference to be twenty- 
seven miles, and the depth at which the lava ceased 
flowing to be 950 feet, one is struck with awe at the ima¬ 
gination of a mass amounting to 8,930,304,000,000 cubic 
feet of fiery waves, rolling from a height of 5054 feet 
into the depths of the ocean. 
The lower part of the emptied space, as it now appears, 
offers interesting matter for investigation. Its vast plat¬ 
forms, often arrayed in terraces levelled by deposits of 
cinders and volcanic dust, solid in appearance though 
actually friable, are intersected by clefts, of six feet in 
length by five inches broad, all running S.E. and N.W., 
and all vomiting hot clouds of vapour, which escape with 
considerable force, and with a sharp whistling noise like 
that of the valves of a steam engine. The character of 
these clefts appears to be uniform, their source the same, 
the temperature of the vapour variable : one will give 156° 
at the depth of a foot from the opening, while another 
a few paces off will not give more than 140°. The tem¬ 
perature of the air, at night, descended to 52°, and during 
the day it remained at 75°, while the condensation of 
the vapour did not begin till a foot above the opening. 
Here also, on these arid heights, burnt and dried up, 
desolate to the eye and depressing to the spirits, Nature, 
as with a benevolent regard for the living, has caused 
the Decandria to spring around a single cleft, to the 
height of three feet, so as to intercept the escaping 
vapours and help to condense them, shading the precious 
liquid and protecting it from evaporation, and offering in a 
