We were able
to stand quite near the margin, and look down into the lake, as you
look into the sea from the deck of a ship, the only risk being that
the fractured ledge might give way.
Before we came away, a new impulse seized the lava. The fire was
thrown to a great height; the fountains and jets all wallowed
together; new ones appeared, and danced joyously round the margin,
then converging towards the centre they merged into one glowing
mass, which upheaved itself pyramidally and disappeared with a vast
plunge. Then innumerable billows of fire dashed themselves into the
air, crashing and lashing, and the lake dividing itself recoiled on
either side, then hurling its fires together and rising as if by
upheaval from below, it surged over the temporary rim which it had
formed, passing downwards in a slow majestic flow, leaving the
central surface swaying and dashing in fruitless agony as if sent on
some errand it failed to accomplish.
Farewell, I fear for ever, to the glorious Hale-mau-mau, the
grandest type of force that the earth holds! "Break, break, break,"
on through the coming years,
"No more by thee my steps shall be,
No more again for ever!"
It seemed a dull trudge over the black and awful crater, and
strange, like half-forgotten sights of a world with which I had
ceased to have aught to do, were the dwarf tree-ferns, the lilies
with their turquoise clusters, the crimson myrtle blossoms, and all
the fair things which decked the precipice up which we slowly
dragged our stiff and painful limbs.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113