The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-03-25
The Orators of Mokua~eOWeO on
Mamma LOa.

Mauna Hual2laI ana MauIa La IA La
wall. and in that way had an opportun-
itv OF making Investigations OF craters
and lava flows that may be OF interest TO
those studying volcanic phenomena.
1t would seem that, as the best his
tories are those written long after the
events which they record, when all the
reports Of eye-witnesses can be carefully
examined, so the best descriptions OF
volcanic action may be obtained long
after eruptions, by carefully investigating
the records indehbly inscribed in the |
rocks.
The ascent OF Mauna Loa Is 80 seldom |
made that a brief account OF my excur- !
sions may be interesting.
On the 1st of September, 1885, set
out in company with Mr.. J. S. Emerson,
of the Hawaiian Government Survey, to
ascend that mountain from the table
land east Of Hualalai, along the south
side of the lava flow of 1859, which, as
many will remember, was visited by a
party from Oahu College. We were pro-
vided with mules for riding and pack
donkeys, and accompanied by several
natives, including a so-called guide, who
lost himself and delayed us over day
in searching for him.
Our route led first through a narrow
belt of forest, consisting OF mamane, ohia
and sandalwood trees; then through a
scanty vegetation of ohelos and the
beautiful Cyathodes Tameiameiae, and at
last beyond the limits of vegetation,
without a vestige even OF moss or lichen,
over a wonderful and awful billowy
waste of "pahoehoe" lava, traversed by
tracts of "aa'' and deep chasms.
At about two-thirds of the distance
toward the summit we passed the ragged
| crater hill from which the outbreak Of
1859 had issued, and here our path was
strewed with pumice and 'Pele's hair"
! from that eruption. There was an enor-
nous quantity of lava poured forth
from the small fissure of this crater,
forming a stream from half mile to two
| miles wide, and reaching nearly thirty
miles to the ocean at Kiholo. Lower
down 1 counted eighteen species of ferns
and a dozen kinds of heterogeneous
plants already growing on this flow.
In this vicinity the caverns contained
many carcasses of wild goats. In one
further south [ counted eighty OF their
skeletons and decaying bodies. They
had probably leaped in for shelter, and
had been unable to leap out.
h.
warned us to descend, because Of an ap-
preaching storm; but Mr.. Emerson and
l, anxious to accomplish the object OF
our journey, set out without him through
the driving rain that soon turned into
hail and then into snow marking oul
route with flags so that we might be able
to find our way back. In a short time
we reached the brink of the vast crater
of Mokuaweoweo, filled with fog and sur
rounded by frightful precipices. Along
this brink were numerous deep assures
filed with ice and water, the beginning
of cleavage for avalanches into the
crater Here and for quarter of mile
) below, we observed many rocks of a diff
J ferent kind from the surface lavas, solid
[ finty fragments of the foundation walls
, weighing from fifty pounds to a ton
which had formerly fallen down upor
the crater floor and had afterwards beer
hurled out during eruptions. l noticed
f similar rocks around the summit crater
2 of Hualalai 1t would be unsafe to ap
proach the crater at this place during
: eruptions, when such brickbats were fly
/ ing.
We returned to our camp about noon
t and sent the poor animals, which haC
: stood all night in the icy wind tied t.
. Jagged rocks, in the care of the guild
= down the mountain and with the he'll
e of one native, with much difficulty, car
: ried tent and supplies to the summit
/ At evening the fog lifted and gave us
2 glimpse of the craters. Immediatel
t below us lay the central crater, SUI
] rounded by almost perpendicular walls
/ with pahoehoe floor streaked with gre
: sulphur cracks, from hundreds OF whicl
i there issued columns of steam, and wit
: a still smoking cone in the south end
! ! DSyOnu IlllS CCIllIdA CIStLSA O1 LIlS bOuII
r rose a high plateau, and beyond thi
: plateau still further south we saw a
opening into another crater small an
: deep. In the opposite direction, mort
q of the central crater, appeared anothe
o higher crater like an upper plateau
from which torrent of lava had ono
n poured into the central crater, and mort
of this again another crater, like a sti
g higher plateau, from which also Law
had flowed south.
/, Thus it was evident, as appeared NOR
d clearly by subsequent investigation, tha
u Mokuaweoweo is not simply one crater
e but series of four or five craters, tn
d walls of which have broken down, S
e that they have flowed into each other.
i The crater OF Haleakala, on Maui, Wa
probably formed in a similar manner OIL
of several ancient craters which hay
broken into others. These vast chasm
may we'll be called calderas, as has bee
recommended by Captain Dutton. o
Hualalai there is a series of craters ha7
. ing the same relative position as those
> MokuaWeoWeO and crowded so close t.