184 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
being distinctly marked, looked like so many 
courses of masonry. We sailed between them 
and the main land; and about five in the after¬ 
noon landed at Kapua, a small and desolate-look¬ 
ing village, on the south-west point of Hawaii, and 
about twenty miles distant from Kalahiti. Here 
we had the canoe drawn up on the beach until our 
companions should arrive. 
After leaving Kalahiti, Messrs. Thurston, Good¬ 
rich, and Bishop, proceeded over a rugged tract of 
lava, broken up in the wildest confusion, appa¬ 
rently by an earthquake, while it was in a fluid 
state. About noon they passed a large crater. 
Its rim, on the side towards the sea, was broken 
down, and the streams of lava issuing thence, 
marked the place by which its contents were prin¬ 
cipally discharged. The lava was not so porous 
as that at Keanaee, but, like much in the imme¬ 
diate vicinity of the craters, was of a dark red, or 
brown ferruginous colour, and but partially glazed. 
It was exceedingly ponderous and compact; many 
fragments had quite a basaltic shape, and con¬ 
tained quantities of olivine, of a green and brown 
colour. For about a mile along the coast, they 
found it impossible to travel without making a 
considerable circuit inland: they therefore pro¬ 
cured a canoe, and passed along the part of the 
coast where the sea rolled up against the naked 
rocks; and about one p. m. landed in a very high 
surf. To a spectator on the shore their small 
canoe would have seemed every moment ready to 
be buried in the waves; yet, by the dexterity of 
the natives, they were safely landed, with no other 
inconvenience than a slight wetting from the spray 
of the surf. 
. Mr. Thurston preached to the people at the 
