Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1885-09-18
The Crater of Haieahata.
lCanhnued

During the evening chat around the
blaze of our campfire it is determined
that the next morning we move across
East Gap and camp beneath the walls
opposite us.
Hence, when the day dawns for the
second time upon us in the crater there
is packing of bags, a rolling up of
woolen and rubber blankets, and a
muster Of pans, kettles and table gear
Our active natives soon reduce the
baggage to its proper size and one after
the other the eighteen animals we have
with us have riding or packing saddles
girted upon them, and by 8 O'clock the
long caravan starts.
The trail winds about amongst fields
Of jagged scoria, passing by swelled up
bubbles of lava on which the horses
hoofs sound hollow. About midway
in the route across, we turn little to
one side, to look at a cave formed by the
breaking in of the top of one Of these
bubbles. The hole thus made is per
haps three feet in diameter, and when
one of us jumps down it he lands on a
smooth floor some five or six feet below
and, STOPPING, peers into the dim re-
cesscs of the hemispherical cavity.
There is room enough on the floor OF
this bubble to allow eight or ten per-
sons to stretch out at full length with
their feet pointing to the central spot
Of light beneath the opening, and it is
thus that goat and cattle-hunters, travel
ers passing through the crater from
Makawao to Kaupoo, (for the trail we
have followed into the crater, and which
we now strike again is the regular road
over the mountain), and parties like our
own who are be-lated or overtaken by
storm often pass the night. The rule
in such cases is to first kindle fire on
the floor of the cave beneath the open
ing and into it sweep the litter land
heas) left by the last party. Then,
when one creepsin to their allotted space
and wraps oneself in blanket; one
feels like a compact turnover" pie
baking in an old-iashioned oven.
| About the mouth of the bubble are
scattered many bones presumably OF
sheep, goats and beef creatures de-
voured there, though the thought is
suggested that amongst them there may
be few that are the sole remains Of
some unfortunate who was overlooked
on some occasion and drawn from the
huge oven cremated
From this central cave we move on
| by series Of rough walls, from the
crevices in which spring many shrubs
and few trees, and soon enter upon a
wide space surrounded by cones where
conspicuous, dark-red rock marks the
point wherethe direct trail from thenorth
gap leads over broad expanse of aa.
Another winds up the steep slope of an
outlying spur of the great peak we
marked opposite us on first entering
the crater, and still another worn track
leads on past the southeast flank Of
this and higher spurs in the direction
of the east gap. The trail that winds
up the steep slope mentioned if fol
e lowed will take US along the ridge o
q tbesspur, always ascending, to where i
a joins the main peak. Thence up ;
zig-zag track on to recent flow whose
: black streams have spread out in rough
# aa for miles before us and on our right
+ and then along the grassy slope tha
e lies in the angle of the high peak ane
the wall of the crater, and finally out or
to the crest thousand feet above
J where we stand.
J. This is the route we purpose to pur
sue, but, before doing so we take side
|. trail near us and visit the "Bottomles:
Pit" This is a great chimney left gap
ing open in the floor Of the crater, ano
0 we cluster around its mouth (Which i.
Il but little raised above the crater.
It ioor) and peep fearfully into its depth:
down which line has been lowered
for seventy feet without finding the bot
" tom. Fragments Of lava thrown in clinl
and rattle, and tinkle against the sides
+ for some time and as far as is knowr
r the pit deserves its name. There are
wonderful cones near the spot, and be-
yond it still more wonderful forms o.
lava, but we leave them unexplored a:
0 we wish to attain the summit of the
n northern wall and pitch our tent before
: dark.
Then commences the long, slow
ascent of the great spur and the higher
slopes. Every foot Of the way is of in
terest as, on rising higher and higher
above the crater floor more and more
of its grand and striking features are
, visible from each new point of view.
' There is all about us evidences of the
tremendous force with which the lava
from the rugged, yawning crater we are
approaching, piled this great spur up
: in its progress, raising vast masses OF
| basaltic rock, on edge and leaving them
in parallel dikes above the debris.
There is on our right group of these
massive slabs clustered about one huge
block that suggests gigantic tomb-stones
: near the ruin of a great cathedral.
. There are solitary masses on the hill
sides, with trees overshadowing them
that we almost expect to find craven in
, hieroglyphic lines to departed worth
ands"all the air solemn stiffness holds
as through here was laid the last and
: greatest of earth's demi-gods.
: The route leads over the beds OF
black lava and so on to the grassy hill