groves of tall
cocoanut and richly-tinted bread-fruit trees, with extensive plantations
of sugar-cane beyond; while amid them flowed numberless murmuring
streams. Above this lower level rose a succession of pasture lands,
surmounted by belts of trees, changing their character from the
vegetation of the tropics to that of the more northern regions of the
world. The country indeed sloped upwards twenty miles or more, forming
the side of an elevated tableland in the centre of the island, out of
which sprang towards the sky two mountains of prodigious height--that of
Mauna Loa, the nearest, in the form of a smooth dome; and Mauna Kea,
surmounted by nine snow-covered cones. Above the tableland appeared a
silvery cloud, showing the whereabouts of the fearful crater of Kilauea,
which it was the intention of the two commanders to visit on the
following morning. As night closed in, its position was rendered still
more visible by the glare of the ever-burning fires within the crater
reflected on the cloud.

At early dawn, Jack and Adair, with a party of their ships' companies,
and as many of the officers as could be spared, and who wished to go,
started for the shore. Jack took Tom and Archie and Mr Mildmay, who
undertook to narrate the events of the expedition in verse. The second
lieutenant declared that he had no wish to toil up a steep mountain for
the sake of seeing a huge pit full of fire and smoke, so that he
willingly remained on board instead of the first lieutenant. Several
others, however, had more curiosity. Adair took Desmond, and three or
four of his gun-room officers and midshipmen.

"Now, recollect that none of you must run the risk of being turned into
cinders by tumbling into the crater," observed Jack, as they were
setting off.

"I rather think that gas would be the product of such an immersion,"
observed the doctor; "there wouldn't be so much solid matter of you left
in five seconds as I could put into my snuff-box--so look out for
yourselves."

Horses and guides were in readiness, for of late years the once
mysterious residence of the goddess Pele has become one of the lions of
the world.

"Forward!" cried the commander, and the party trotted on, headed by
their guide. Eight miles on they passed a vast chasm, after which they
began to ascend more rapidly than before. In a short time they entered
a region of black lava with hollows in it full of water, into which the
natives on foot plunged t