THROUGH HAWAII. 
181 
posed, and generally covered with a thin layer of soil. 
We passed along the edge of a more recent stream of 
lava, rugged, black, and appalling in its aspect, com¬ 
pared with the tract we were walking over, which here 
and there showed a green tuft of grass, a straggling 
shrub, or a creeping convolvulus. After travelling 
about a mile, we reached the foot of a steep precipice. 
A winding path led to its top, up which we pursued 
our way, occasionally resting beneath the shade of 
huge overhanging rocks. This precipice is about three 
hundred feet high, and the rocks on fracture proved a 
dark grey kind of lava, more compact than that on the 
adjacent plain. The whole pile appears to have been 
formed by successive eruptions from some volcano in 
the interior, as there appeared to be a thin layer of soil 
between some of the strata, or different inundations, 
which we supposed was produced by the decomposi¬ 
tion of the lava on the surface of the lower stratum, be¬ 
fore overflowed by the superincumbent mass. The 
rocks appeared to have been rent in a line from the sea¬ 
shore towards the mountains, and probably the same 
convulsion which burst the rocks asunder, sunk the 
plain to its present level. In half an hour we reached 
its summit. A beautiful country now appeared before 
us, and we seemed all at once transported to some 
happier island, where the devastations attributed to 
Nahoaarii , and Pele , deities of the volcanoes, had 
never been known. The rough and desolate tract of 
lava, with all its distorted forms, was exchanged for 
the verdant plain, diversified with gently rising hills, 
and sloping dales, ornamented with shrubs, and gay 
with blooming flowers. We saw, however, no stream 
of water during the whole of the day; but, from the 
