On all
this deadly region the sun poured his tropic light and heat from one
of the bluest skies I ever saw.
The direction given me on leaving Kapapala was, that after the
natives left me I was to keep a certain crater on the south-east
till I saw the smoke of Kilauea; but there were many craters.
Horses cross the sand and hummocks as nearly as possible on a bee
line; but the lava rarely indicates that anything has passed over
it, and this morning a strong breeze had rippled the sand,
completely obliterating the hoof-marks of the last traveller, and at
times I feared that losing myself, as many others have done, I
should go mad with thirst. I examined the sand narrowly for hoof-
marks, and every now and then found one, but always had the
disappointment of finding that it was made by an unshod horse,
therefore not a ridden one. Finding eyesight useless, I dismounted
often, and felt with my finger along the rolling lava for the
slightest marks of abrasion, which might show that shod animals had
passed that way, got up into an ohia to look out for the smoke of
Kilauea, and after three hours came out upon what I here learn is
the old track, disused because of the insecurity of the ground.
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