182 
VOYAGE TO THE 
Numerous small cones seemed to indicate the former 
places of craters; they are mostly surrounded by sand, as 
if thrown up by them, though it might possibly have been 
drifted thither. The ground we trod was of heavy com¬ 
pact lava, with here and there red stains; and there were 
many huge blisters, or even caverns, like bubbles on it, lined 
with a shining vitreous substance, and sometimes with ob¬ 
sidian. On many parts of the surface was scattered what 
the natives call Peli’s hair, and indeed it resembles hair or 
spun glass*, and is probably only the melted volcanic glass 
blown off by the wind while in a state of fusion. All this 
part of the road looked like a petrified ocean; the summits 
of the ridges rough and curled, the sloping sides black and 
glassy, while in the troughs there lay sand and olivine, and 
bubbles of a rusty colour, which, on being broken, showed a 
light spongy substance with shining cells. Not far from 
the second ledge of lava we passed an extinct crater of great 
size, and computed to be 900 feet deep; its sides are clothed 
in rich verdure, but the bottom presents one smooth, shining, 
jet-black surface. 
The plain to which we descended from the lava ledges 
think these traditions indicate some points of history which perhaps a better ac¬ 
quaintance with the songs and tales of the Island may elucidate; and still more 
particulars of the phenomena of the mountain, and its effects on the surrounding 
seas. 
* A similar production is found on the volcano of the Isle of Bourbon. 
