There the ohia trees were relieved blackly
against the sky. The scene started out from the darkness with the
suddenness of a revelation. We felt the pungency of sulphurous
fumes in the still night air. A sound as of the sea broke on our
ears, rising and falling as if breaking on the shore, but the ocean
was thirty miles away. The heavens became redder and brighter, and
when we reached the crater-house at eight, clouds of red vapour
mixed with flame were curling ceaselessly out of a huge invisible
pit of blackness, and Kilauea was in all its fiery glory. We had
reached the largest active volcano in the world, the "place of
everlasting burnings."
Rarely was light more welcome than that which twinkled from under
the verandah of the lonely crater-house into the rainy night. The
hospitable landlord of this unique dwelling lifted me from my horse,
and carried me into a pleasant room thoroughly warmed by a large
wood fire, and I hastily retired to bed to spend much of the
bitterly cold night in watching the fiery vapours rolling up out of
the infinite darkness, and in dreading the descent into the crater.
The heavy clouds were crimson with the reflection, and soon after
midnight jets of flame of a most peculiar colour leapt fitfully into
the air, accompanied by a dull throbbing sound.
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