The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-09-23

nose, while our GUIDE was Dent oouoie
Of cholic. A few moments of the lomilomi and he re-
covered. All were affected with . severe pain in the
head caused by . rush Of blood. At 4, T. NJ, the
so had len tbi. region and covered as with . cloak
all the plain below, and Is the sun approached the
ton, and in point Of beauty and magni6cence exceeded
ANYTHING we had ever before witnessed. What q sub
iect for q painter 1t was worth all our trials and
fatieues-that sunset on Mauna Loa- One Of our
party somewhat marred the romance Of the moment
by exclaiming rspturously: "Oh for q tar pot and
brush. that 1 might copy this truly rich scene -
Soon old Sol sunk beneath the western wave, leaving
behind him q glorious halo Of golden rays, forming
another beautiful sight
But the night wind already began to warn us of
the necessity of procuring a shelter. Fortunately
caves were found without trouble, and settling our
natives into one, we retired to another. and, taking q
single cracker for supper, we buried ourselves under
our blankets. Our natives would eat nothing, de-
claring themselves aole pololi. In spite of all our
endeavors, the searching wind, which howled and
roared around the mountain side. stole under our
coverings and interrupted our slumbers with its chill
ing influences.
August 18th. This was our fourth day, and peep
ing out from under our blankets we found the Their
mometer before sunrise was at 38o in the cave. 10th
to meet the chilly mountain air, we covered our heads
in the vain endeavor to get another nap, when the
approaching light of the god of day warned US that
we must be out, or we should miss the sight of a SUM-
rise from Mauna Loa- The view was grand indeed,
almost exceeding the sunset of the previous nights
Taking a draught of pure, cold water tit made our
teeth ache) from a ~calabash, the effects of which were
quite celebrating, we started, soon after sunrise, for
the summit, our heads still t~hrobbing with the same
ache as on last evening. Afer many ~climbings over
lava hillocks, often stopping to rest, at the end of
three hours we arrived nearly exhausted at the sum-
NIT, where all at once the great crater of "Mokua-
weoweo'' burst upon our view.
Standing upon the brink, a ridge of black lava, we
gazed down into the immense abyss yawning before
us with all its hidden fires, with feelings of awe. and,
for relief. looking around. the unbroken horizon met
our view in every direction, except where the peaks
Of Mauna Kea soared above the line. The morning
was lovely, but the sun was uncomfortably warm here
in this altitude of 8 ,7s0 feet, and the pain in our
heads continued with undated severity. To our
judgments, after viewing it from different directions.
we came TO the conclusion that this crater was about
700 feet deep and Eve miles in circumference on the
outer edge. If our guesses were correct it would prove
this crater to he somewhat smaller every way than
that of Kilauea, several thousand feet lower down,
and situated on the s. E. side of this mountain. In
August, 1851, there was an eruption here. the lava
flowing in a ~northerly direction towards the valley
between this mountain and Mauna Kea.
To the northward is another crater, and q larger
one than the first, from which it is separated only by
a dam or narrow ridge. 1t was in action, though not
violently so. We judged it to be about 600 feet deep
and Is miles in circumference. In vol. l of the Ha-
raiian Spectator, page SO, we notice some state
ments by the late Mr.. Douglas. who visited these era
tiers in 1884. He makes the depth of this largest era
ter by actual measurement to be 1870 feet and its
circumference as "a miles. The crater may have
varied much in depth since then from repeated erup-
tions, but we think that Mr.. Douglas rather over
estimated the circumference. And, furthermore, we
doubt if he could have visited the highest point Of
this mountain, as he took his observation from the
eastern side, that being manifestly much lower than
this, the western side. He makes the height Of Mauna
Loa as 13,430 feet, and that of Mauna Kea as l3, 764
feet, a mistake, as has been proved. of $50 feet in the
first and 189 in the other, too low. In January, 1852,
the largest of these two craters overAowed and ran
down the mountain towards Kau a few miles, then
turning it ran in the direction of Honaunau, about
half way down, when the eruption ceased.
As we stood near this wonderful precipice we saw
a small, white smoke issuing from the north side of
the crater. One of our party was too worn out and
feeble to proceed, and leaving him to await our re-
turn we started in the direction of the smoke, hoping
to find means to boil our coffee pot, for by this time
We stood much in need of refreshment. We made our
way slowly along, picking our path over the rugged
ridge of the ~precipice. Numerous assures were seen
full of water, covered with a thin coating of ice. We
filled our flask and had a refreshing drink Of this
mountain water. From this spot we could plainly
see the smoke which we had before observed, rising
in clouds about 1000 feet down the mountain, and
probably 20 miles from where we stood. As We pro-
ceeded further on we came to a small cave-like OPEN
ing, where, to our surprise, we found a bed of moss
and green fern growing as healthy and as thrifty as
in The forest below. There was quite a steam arising
from this spot, indicating the presence of FIRE below
Here we noticed the marks of goats. though made
long since, and picked up some walking sticks which
had probably been left by travelers-they were old
and rotten.
Travelling farther on towards a smoke which we
saw. one of us made a descent, climbing over blocks
Of blush lava and hinty rocks and clinkers--
When near the bottom, sheets of lava were encoun-
tered of a g'ass-like character, which now and then
would let the traveller through ancle-deep. At last, |
coming to the coveted spot, the smoke proved to be
steam, arising from a pile of rough stones. Throwing
these on one side in hopes to find fire, in which at |
tempt I was disappointed, I got thoroughly steamed
through, which had the effect to alleviate the head
ache before mentioned. From this spot a large num-
Der Of pufs of smoke were observable far down the
crater extending out into the middle. Near By were
cones or chimneys where the lava had partly
run over and cooled, and thus remained partly sus-
pended.
There were many wonders observed in this wonder
full spot which might be interesting, did time and
space allow. But climbing up the p~recipics again
joined my companion, and we took our way back to
we had left our friend and the natives. This
was a weary tramp. the sun shining powerfully on
our heads. On joining the remainder of our party
had a consultation, and much to our regret it was
that, considering the fact that one of US was
quite indisposed. and that our natives had quite given
it was advisable to abandon for this occasion,
our original design Of visiting the burning volcano.
We had, however, seen sufficient of the wonders of