The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-01-20
VOLCANIC FIRES.

land, the Barriers, Kawau. Tiritiri, Rangi-
toto, Motutapu, Motuihi, Ponui, and the
other islands laved by the Waitemata,
whose mOuth they tattoo, present familiar
contrasts of incense-bearing vegetation and
intimidating sterility, grassy banks, and
scoria-covered wastes, cavern depths and
crater cones, bluff coast lines and shelly
beaches, low marshes and woodland heights;
for, though the Hawaiian Islands are tropic
in locality, they are but sub-tropic in vege-
~tation, with a climate mild and unique in
its substantially unvarying temperature.
They may be said to nave but one season,
and that early summer time. There. is no
annual foliaceOus death, to be followed by a
new birth and joyous resurrection among
the flora as witnessed in temperate climates,
nor yet the cankering putrefaction for ever
gnawing at the yitals of midland tropic
vegetation-a sort Of living death or Lad
coonian struggle for existence. With the
exception of spots in the Hilo district on
Hawaii-the largest island-nothing sug-
gestive of the luXuriance, ~rankness, and
impenetrable density of South American
tropics is seen anywhere, and Hilo is the
only place where rain falls abundantly all
the year round. Few localities in the world
can equal il in this respect. During ten
months-sOme in this year about 24O
ICAE ~ l. AEGAF lGAA . NAa CH VIZ AlNNDAC
this year u inches fell in less than "a hours.
In the face of such an opening of the win
dows of heaven, il requires the myriad rain
bows that span the sky both day and night
to reassure us that the world will not again
be wholly submerged. Ordinary mortals
would feel like repining, and be prone to
manifest disapprobation at this daily dual
baptism by s~prinkling and immersion and
threatened cataclysm. Not so with Hiloans.
One may travel the world around, and he
will nowhere find people better satisfied
with their climate. Even CalifOrnians are
not so unanimous in Boosting about their
q glorious climate" for often they speak
with an atrocious double entendre. Hilo
people con~scientiously pride themselves
upon their excessive rainfall and daily
drenching, as though man were a fish or
a seal or other cetaceous animal. But HIlo
has seen other floods and baptlsms, the ele-
ment being fire, a night amid whose Tar
tarean terrors 1 have already attempted to
describe in the Herald.
THE oLCAN HOUSE.
Thirty miles southerly from the town is
Kilauea, with bottomless birthstone pits of
endless and untiring activity. This is the
worlds largest living crater, and is situated
on the side of Mauna Loa, whence lava
torrents rush at intervals of eight or ten
years. Though travellers cannot depend
upon seeing a flow, they can seldom, if
be so unfortunate as to miss a more or less
amazing exhibition of the incomprehensible
u S5O-d1 III lOlCCoC CllClCd III Il
one ofthe worlds safety valves whose con-
tinual action saves the group from being
blown to atoms for their terra (nOnJ .frnaT
is manifestly but a thin crust, forming the
-cuticle of q flaming octo-digitated hand
whose fhfohbing arm is EXTENDED from the
worlds central fires: visitors usually arrive
at the Volcano House in the eve244gs wet
and weary, after a long, hard days ride over
a rough though picturesque country. Their
creature comforts are attended to with
RnTIrfannG alanFifU and in n Guff Of 1rxr
clothes, they sit down TO a substantial
dinner, which being despatched, they gather
about a rousing log fire on a great, wide,
o~ld-fashiOned hearthstone to peruse and
comment upon the Volcano House Register
"A rare literary volume, in which all find q
familiar name of more or less celebrity, APP
pended to an artistic or literary effort. The
prose illusions are so deep and sensible as
to be quite incomprehensible, the Pegasus
flight beyond the reach of ordinary intel
lects, while the arts is so high and the puns
so low as first to dazzle, then derange, and
forthwith each victim. in evidence of the
contagious dementia, leaves his mark upon
an untitled folio.
A PHANTOM GUIDE.
Mark Twain, the American humorist, in
the following terms hints at his frame Of
mind when he there evolved a medium
through which future visitors might gaze
upon his inner consciOuSneSS:-'After read
ing half of that dream, 1 recognise the
fact that 1 did write it after all. I had
totally forgotten it. 1t is a worthless piece
of rubbish. / must have been pretty young
then, or sick, or something" The "dream"
referred to was a first of April yarn about
dreaming three times in one night in the
Volcano House that he followed a phantom
guide down into the crater, and was shown
the remains of King Kamehameha l.,
thought to have been concealed there. On
the following day he made the descent,
found the trail as dreamed, followed it, and
reached the coffin-shaped stone beneath
which the bones lay. By several super
human efforts, in great depression of spirits
(he had forgotten his pocket flask, he ulti-
mately succeeded in rolling away the
stone; looked into the sepulchre, and
There wasn't bones there. L just said to
myself, Well, if this amt the infernalest
swindle that I ever came across yet L
wish / NAV never! You can't bet any
thing OH dreamsIn To any one who has
ever made the descent, it is evident that
the article was written prior TO witnessing
the scene described.
FoREBoDINGs OF THE WORLDS COLLAPSE
As night wears on, a pyrotechnic display
brilliant and sublime-iS beheld above
| the burning lakes. Heaven and earth are
ablaZe as upon that day in next October,
when, as the astronomers tell us, the firma-
ment shall melt with a ferYent heat; and a
low rumblIng sound SmiteS the ear with
/ ominous sound. On retiring, tired Natures
sweet restorer is woOed in vain. On tlmld
toe she approaches, and lays her soft hand
upon your brow, Your eyes close 10 the
delicious touch, but a subterranean rumble,
n little louder and more pronounced than
usual, frightens her away. subsequently
you begin to think with Bailey that time
should be counted by heart-thrObs and not
by figures on a dial, reasoning that if a
mans hair turns white in a single night he
has in that time lived the years necessary
to bleach his locks.
PLUM PUDDING, PIPING o
You ore awakened before sunrise, in order
that an early start may be made into the
crater. On stepping outside, you find the
Volcano House to be a long, plain, one
storey, gable-roofed, frame structure, orna-
mented by the dripping rubber coats and
leggings of tourists. The sun is still far be-
low the horizon, and yet Mauna Loa's sky
kissing summit on the right is bathed in
his warm tints. From the argent cap OF
spotless snow browning the vast and perfect
dome rises a great column of smoke, like in
cense from a morning sacrifice. Up, up it
scars in calm majesty, till lost beyond the
celestial gates that stand ajar. The aweing
insniratinn and fascinatiOn of the scene