ire, and I felt sure that the volcano had died out for once for my
special disappointment.

"Suddenly, just above and in front of us, gory drops were tossed in
the air, and springing forwards, we stood on the brink of Hale-mau-mau,
which was about thirty-five feet below us. I think we all screamed. I
know we all wept; but we were speechless, for a new glory and terror had
been added to the earth. It is the most unutterable of wonderful things.
The words of common speech are quite useless. It is unimaginable,
indescribable; a sight to remember forever; a sight which at once took
possession of every faculty of sense and soul, removing one altogether
out of the range of ordinary life. Here was the real 'bottomless pit',
'the fire which is not quenched', 'the place of Hell', 'the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone', 'the everlasting burnings', 'the fiery
sea whose waves are never weary'. Perhaps those Scripture phrases
were suggested by the sight of some volcano in eruption. There were
groanings, rumblings, and detonations; rushings, hissings, splashings,
and the crashing sound of breakers on the coast; but it was the surging
of fiery waves upon a fiery shore. But what can I write? Such words as
jets, fountains, waves, spray, convey some idea of order and regularity,
but here there are none.

"The inner lake, while we stood there, formed a sort of crater within
itself; the whole lava sea rose about three feet; a blowing cone about
eight feet high was formed; it was never the same two minutes together.
And what we saw had no existence a month before, and probably will be
changed in every essential feature a month from hence. The prominent
object was fire in motion; but the surface of the double lake was
continually skimming over for a second or two with a cool crust of
lustrous grey-white, like frost-silver, broken by jagged cracks of a
bright rose-color. The movement was nearly always from the sides to the
centre; but the movement of the centre itself appeared independent, and
always took a southerly direction. Before each outburst of agitation
there was much hissing and throbbing, with internal roaring as of
imprisoned gases. Now it seemed furious, demoniacal, as if no power
on earth could bind it, then playful and sportive; then for a second
languid, but only because it was accumulating fresh force. Sometimes the
whole lake took the form of mighty waves, and, surging heavily against
the partial barrier with a sou