The Polynesian., 1840-08-15


1903, Same volume, he says i'm a letter &c.
lady in Oahu, :.'You may pledge nv nam"
for saying that the Great Crater is on the w,
ny summit of Mauna ,Kea Che probable
means Mama Loa, at present in an AG.
TIVE state. it is twenty-seven mile.
round, and one thousand two hundred and
Iseventy-ieet deep" Singular enough tba,
ia crater Of this extent, and active. shond
emit no smoke. He also adds here Nrs
miles to the circumference, which one woud
think was already sufficiently large at twen.
Ity-four miles. He. appears also to be sin.
gplarly unhappy in his mathematical est.
mates. . After giving the summit of this
tmountan a diameter of seven miles. and
calling it horizon by itself, he walks two
and half miles farther, and discovers ,
Great Terminal Volcano of twenty-sevep
miles circumference, or nine in diameter
thus exceeding his previous assertion by four
and a half miles. 1t is rather difficult to con.
ceive how he could measure accurately. with
a line. and plumb the depth of the ledge, when
the wind whirled up from its brink with such
furious violence, that he could hardly stand
''t,cenfy paceS from it" Even at Kilauea
with half the depth, and to the eye perpen.
dIcular pail, one cahnot throw stone so as
to reach the black ledge; and this must GER
talnly have been perfectly perpendicular, to
have allowed Il person, setting aside the wind,
to have droppeda lead one thousand two hun
dred and seventy feet, and to distinguish it!
when it reached the bottom in the letter to
his London friend, he makes the depth tothe
surface of the fire one thousand two hundred
and seventy-two feet. The heat arising
from lake OF liquid fire, FIVE miles square,
'in state of ebultion, rolling its blazing
waves" &c. would with most lead and Irvine
have operated as serious impeachment to their
arriving at the surface in their original state.
though their component. parts might reach
with the greatest facility; but physical diff.
cu)ties, Or even impossibiliies seemed to
have been surmounted by him, with rather
more ease than by most mortals. We found
the heat exceedingly uncomfortable from the
lake at kilauea, two. hundred and fifty feet
above and at least five hundred feet in direct
line from it Even admitting the truth of
these statements, and that lie saw and per.
formed all this, how can the fact, of twenty
five square miles Of "liqnid fire." in ''Gnious
agitation, and casting upwards columns of
from thirty to one hundred and seventy feet
high, with a '.tiery fluid forcing its way in
a current that proceeds three miles and a
quarter per hour" and the remainder OF this
description, be reconcled with the passage
in his Journal where he says, "Were it not
for the dykes on the west end, which show
the extent of the ancient cauldrom, and the
direction Of the lava, together with It's
proximity to the existing volcano, there
is but little to attract the eye of the Natural.
list over the greater portion of this huge
dome, which is a gigantic mass of Stag, SEQ.
riR, and ashes" BY the "eXistng volcano"
he evidently means Kilauea, as he every
where speaks of Mauna Loa as a "huge
DOME and certainly crater of twenty.
seven miles in circumference, would be any
thing but small portion Of its surface, and
in, so active state, it would not only attract
Natural!sts, but the whole world. The in.
Ehabitants of Hawaii would at least find re%
son to be particularly interested in it, an(
yet It is totally unknown to them. Did such
exist, its light could be seen at the farthes
extremity of the group, its fires would shake
the island toits centre, while its noises would
appa the stoutcst heart Kilauea is consid.
cred the largest volcano in the world yet in
Its most active state, it has never shown a
tenth part of the superficial extent. of liquid
fire ascribed to- Mauna Loa Vesu,ius, Of
scarcely sixth the size of Kilauea, in Az
eJected ashes. ESQ Procopius states that
reached Constantinople. distance of upl