254 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
without any refreshment, except a few berries and a 
piece of sugar-cane. We descended 300 or 400 feet, by 
a narrow winding path, covered with overhanging trees, 
and bordered by shrubs and grass. We then walked 
over a tract of lava, broken and decomposed, and 
about four or five miles wide, at the end of which 
another steep appeared. These steep precipices form 
concentric ridges of volcanic rock round the greater 
part of this side of the island. Down this we de¬ 
scended, by following the course of a rugged current 
of ancient lava, for about 600 feet perpendicular depth, 
when we arrived at the plain below, which was one 
extended sheet of lava, without shrub or bush, stretch¬ 
ing to the north and south as far as the eye could reach, 
and from four to six miles across, from the foot of the 
mountain to the sea. The natives gave us the fabulous 
story cf the combat between Pel6 and Tamapuaa, as 
the origin of this flood of lava. This vast tract of 
lava was black, shining, and cellular, though not very 
brittle, and was more homogeneous than that which 
covered the southern shores of the island. We crossed 
it in about two hours, and arrived at Kearakomo, the 
second village in the division of Puna. We stopped 
at the first house we came to, and begged some water. 
The natives brought us a calabash-full, of which we 
drank most hearty draughts, though it was little better 
than the water of the sea, from which if had percolated 
through the vesicles of the lava into hollows from nine 
to twelve feet distant from the ocean. It barely 
quenched our thirst while we were swallowing it, but 
it was the best we could procure, and we could hardly 
refrain from drinking at every hollow to which we 
came. After walking about a mile along the beach, we 
