Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/251

 The next morning it seemed as if all nature were alive; the waving of the green foliage, the singing of the birds,  the cheerful voices of the natives, gave everything the air  of summer. Here we made a stop of four days, during which time a complete survey of the crater and surrounding country was made.

The sea of fire at the bottom of the crater appeared to be larger and in greater agitation than at our former  visit. While a party of us were viewing it one night, it boiled up, and the red, molten lava ran in streams over  the dark bottom of the crater in all directions.

The big cloud that hangs over this volcano is, at night, a cloud of fire, which can be seen by mariners at a distance of seventy or eighty miles out to sea. In the daytime it is of a silvery hue, with burnished edges. Under some of the lava clinkers we found sulphur and beautiful  white magnesite. We also found what is called Pele’s hair in the crevices of the lava. This is a glossy material, resembling loose tufts of tow. The ground on the lee-side of the crater seemed, in places, to be covered with it, as with patches of golden cobwebs.

Bidding the fiery crater of Kilauea and Madame Pele a final adieu, we steered for the ship. It being fair weather and easy traveling, we were soon aboard ship,  glad to stand once more on the decks of our own swift-gliding craft.

We had been absent from the ship just forty-two days. We found all our shipmates well, and very glad to see us back again. The next day the pendulum was put up on shore, but it would not work. It would stop every few minutes. The cause was found to be the jarring of