268 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
The volcano of Kirauea, the largest of which we 
have any account, and which was, until visited 
by us, unknown to the civilized parts of the world, 
is situated in the district of Kapapala, nearly on 
the boundary line between the divisions of Kail 
and Puna, twenty miles from the sea-shore. We 
could form no correct estimate of its elevation 
above the level of the sea; the only means we had 
of judging being the difference of temperature in 
the air, as shewn by our thermometer, which, on 
the shore, was usually at sunrise 71., but which, 
in the neighbourhood of the volcano, was, at the 
same hour, no higher than 46. From the isthmus 
between Kiraueanui, or Great Kirauea, and Little 
Kirauea, the highest peak of Mouna-Kea bore 
by compass n. nt. w. and the centre of Mouna- 
Roa w. s. w. The uneven summits of the steep 
rocks, that, like a wall many miles in extent, sur¬ 
rounded the crater and all its appendages, shewed 
the original level of the country, or perhaps 
marked the base, and formed, as it were, the 
natural buttresses of some lofty mountain, raised 
in the first instance by the accumulation of 
volcanic matter, whose bowels had been con¬ 
sumed by volcanic fire, and whose sides had 
afterwards fallen into the vast furnace, where, 
reduced a second time to a liquefied state, they 
had been again vomited out on the adjacent 
plain. 
But the magnificent fires of Kirauea, which we 
had viewed with such admiration, appeared to 
dwindle into insignificance, when we thought of 
the probable subterranean fires immediately be¬ 
neath us. The whole island of Hawaii, covering 
a space of four thousand square miles, from the 
summits of its lofty mountains, perhaps 15,000 or 
