THROUGH HAWAII» 
163 
fine white spear-shaped crystals of a sharp nitrons 
taste. Having walked a considerable distance along 
the covered way, and collected as many specimens of 
the lava as we could conveniently carry, we returned 
to the sea-shore. Mr. Harwood being indisposed, and 
unable to travel, and being myself but weak, we pro¬ 
ceeded in the canoe to Kalahiti, where we landed about 
2 p. m. and waited the arrival of our companions. The 
rest of the party travelled along the shore, by a path 
often tedious and difficult. The lava frequently pre¬ 
sented a mural front, from sixty to a hundred feet high, 
in many places hanging over their heads, apparently 
every moment ready to fall; while beneath them the 
long rolling billows of the Pacific chafed and foamed 
among the huge fragments of volcanic rocks, along 
which their road lay. In many places the lava had 
flowed in vast torrents over the top of the precipice 
into the sea. Broad flakes of it, or masses like stalac¬ 
tites, hung from the projecting edge in every direction. 
The attention was also attracted by a number of 
apertures in the face of the rocks, at different dis¬ 
tances from their base, looking like so many glazed 
tunnels, from which streams of lava had gushed out 
and fallen into the ocean below, probably at the same 
time that it had rolled down in a horrid cataract from 
the lofty rocks above. 
They passed through two villages, containing be¬ 
tween three and four hundred inhabitants, and reach¬ 
ed Kalahiti about four in the afternoon. Here the 
people were collected for public worship, and Mr. 
Thurston preached to them from John vi. 38. They 
gave good attention, and appeared interested in what 
they heard. The evening was spent in conversation 
