the volcanoes they had visited in other parts of the world, and they studied the ferns, of which there were many varieties, the largest of them having stalks three or four feet in diameter and a height of fifteen or twenty feet. Other ferns were very small, and between the small and large there were all shades of colors and all possible sizes. One of the guides showed that the ferns were not altogether ornamental plants, as he plucked from one of them a woolly substance he called pulu, and said it was used for stuffing beds and pillows. Many tons of pulu are exported every year to America and other countries.
At the Half-way House everybody was hungry, and the lunch was speedily disposed of. A little after six o'clock in the evening the Volcano House was reached, and here the party spent the night. A good supper was prepared and eaten, and the incidents of the day and plans of the morrow were discussed; then the youths joined Doctor Bronson, at the suggestion of the latter, in a sulphur vapor-bath of Nature's own preparation, and after it all retired to sleep. The accommodations were limited, but everybody was weary enough to be willing to put up with the most primitive style of lodging, provided nothing better could be obtained.
Here is what Frank wrote concerning the visit of our friends to the crater of the volcano:
"We took a hearty breakfast and left the house about half-past eight o'clock in the morning, to make acquaintance with the crater. We put on our strongest shoes but did not encumber ourselves with heavy clothing, as the guide said we should not need it. The house is quite near the crater, almost on its edge, and so we didn't have far to go to begin sight-seeing; in fact, we had begun it on the previous evening, and all through the night, as the light of the volcano was almost constantly in our eyes. Two or three times during the night we saw the lava spurting up like a fountain above the edge of one of the small craters, and altogether the scene was an exciting one.
"It is fully three miles from one side of the crater of Kilauea to the other; but you do not walk in a straight course across it, for the simple reason that you can't. The crater is a great pit varying from eight hundred to fifteen hundred feet in depth; its floor consists of lava, ashes, and broken rocks, the lava predominating. It is rough and uneven, and in several places there are small craters sending up jets of flame, smoke, and steam, and there are numerous cracks from which smoke and steam issue constantly. In many places the lava lies in great rolls and ridges that are not easy to walk over, and some of
