“We approached near the border of some of these waves, and reached the melted lava with a stick two yards long; and thus obtained several specimens red-hot from the flowing mass. I have since had occasion to be surprised at the absence of fear in this close contiguity with the terrible element, where the heat under our feet was as great as our shoes would bear, and the radiating heat from the moving mass was so intense that I could face it only a few seconds at a time at a distance of two or three yards. Yet having carefully observed its movements awhile, I threw a stick of wood upon the thin crust of a moving wave where I believed it would bear me, even if it should bend a little, and stood upon it a few moments. In that position, thrusting my cane down through the cooling, tough crust, about half an inch thick, I withdrew it, and forthwith there gushed up of the melted, flowing lava under my feet, enough to form a globular mass two and a half or three inches in diameter, which, as it cooled, I broke off and bore away as spoils from the ancient domain and favorite seat of the great idol goddess of the Hawaiians. Parts that were in violent action we dared not approach. “There is a remarkable variety in the volcanic productions of Hawaii; a variety as to texture, form and size, from the vast mountain and extended plain, to the fine-drawn and most delicate vitreous fiber, the rough clinker, the smooth stream, the basaltic rock, and masses compact and hard as granite or flint, and the pumice or porous scoriæ, or cinders, which, when hot, probably formed a scum or foam on the surface of the denser molten mass. Considerable quantities of capillary glass are produced at Kilauea, though I am not aware that the article is found elsewhere on the islands. Its production has been deemed mysterious. In its appearance it resembles human hair, and among the natives is familiarly called ‘=Lauoho o Pele=,’ the hair of Pele. It is formed, I presume, by the tossing off of small detached portions of lava of the consistence of melted glass, from the mouths of cones, when a fine vitreous thread is drawn out between the moving portion, and that from which it is detached. The fine-spun product is then blown about by the wind, both within and around the crater, and is collected in little locks or tufts. “Sulphur is seen, but in small quantities, in and around the crater; and at a little distance from the rim there are yellow banks, on which beautiful crystals of sulphur may be found. In one place, a pool of pure distilled water, condensed from the steam that rises from a deep fissure, affords the thirsty traveler a beverage far better than that of the ordinary distiller. There is, however, a kind of sulphurous gas produced by the volcano, which is highly deleterious if breathed often or freely. This is one source of danger to the visitor, which, while I was down a thousand feet below the rim, produced a temporary coughing.