SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
189 
twenty, and in some places completely overhanging the 
plain at the bottom, its supporting materials seeming to 
have been eaten away by the fire. From its appearance, 
and from its preserving its level, one might imagine that it 
formerly bounded the bottom of the crater itself, but that 
the wasting effect of the fires had caused it to sink still 
lower, and had left the ledge as a mark of the progressive 
destruction carried on. We were obliged to walk nearly to 
the opposite side of the crater from that where we had 
descended so far, in order to find a safe path by which we 
might go down the other 400 feet; and here the real diffi¬ 
culties commenced. The natives refused to proceed farther 
with us in our dangerous expedition, and we had to push 
on alone through ashes and lavas, and all the waste of fire. 
With the greatest care we could not pick our steps so 
securely but that often the apparently solid lava would give 
way, and we sank knee-deep among ashes and scoria. At 
length we reached the bottom ; and here our difficulties in¬ 
creased. Anxious to reach one of the cones at least, we 
were obliged to feel our way before us with our staves to 
avoid the crevices and fiery pools, where the thin crusts of 
lava might have been too fragile to support our weight: 
and when we had attained our object, the smoke and fire 
soon obliged us to retreat; and a change of wind taking 
