THROUGH HAWAII. 
227 
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 there, which, though thrown up 
by different apertures, had perhaps been originally 
fused in one vast furnace. 
The sides of the gulf before us, although composed 
of different strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular 
for about 400 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 towards the burning lake, which 
was, as nearly as we could judge, 300 or 400 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 evacuation had caused the inun¬ 
dation 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 the numerous 
small craters on its borders; the dense columns of 
vapour and smoke that rose at the north and south 
end of the plain ^ together with the ridge of steep rocks 
