238 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
into this upper reservoir. We were further in¬ 
clined 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, 
which, though thrown up by different apertures, 
had perhaps been originally fused in one vast 
furnace. 
The sides of the gulf before us, although com¬ 
posed of different strata of ancient lava, were per¬ 
pendicular 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 to¬ 
wards the burning lake, which was, as nearly as 
we could judge, three 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 probability this evacu¬ 
ation 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 
