VOLCAETC SAND. 
231 
Leaving the wood, we entered a waste of dry 
sand, about four miles across. The travelling 
over it was extremely fatiguing, as we sunk in to 
our ankles at every step. The sand was of a dark 
olive colour, fine and sparkling, parts of it ad¬ 
hering readily to the magnet, and, being raised 
up in heaps in every direction, presented a sur¬ 
face resembling, colour excepted, that of drifted 
snow. 
It was undoubtedly volcanic ; but whether 
thrown out of any of the adjacent craters in its 
present form, or made up of small particles of 
decomposed lava, and the crystalline olivine we 
had observed so abundant in the lava of the 
southern shore, and drifted by the constant trade- 
wind from the vast tract of lava to the eastward, 
we could not determine. 
• When we had nearly passed through it, we sat 
down on a heap of lava to rest and refresh our¬ 
selves, having taken nothing since the preceding 
noon. About ten o’clock, Messrs. Bishop and 
Goodrich reached the place where we were sitting. 
They had heard by some travellers, that two or 
three days would elapse before Makoa would over¬ 
take them, and, deeming it inexpedient to wait 
so long, had procured a guide, and, early this 
morning, set out from Kapapala to follow the rest 
of the party. 
Having refreshed ourselves, we resumed our 
journey, taking a northerly direction towards the 
columns of smoke, which we could now distinctly 
perceive. Our way lay over a wide waste of an¬ 
cient lava, of a black colour, compact and heavy, 
with a shining vitreous surface, sometimes entirely 
covered with obsidian, and frequently thrown up, 
by the expansive force of vapour or heated air, 
