The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-09-21
THE GENESIS OF HALEAKALA.
No. 1.-The House of the Sun.

Mr.. EDITOR: Are you aware that the
so-called lao valley" back of Wailuku,
Maui, is pronounced by Prof. Dana to be
crater? 1t is undoubtedly one of the
most magnificent craters OF the world.
After passing through the narrow en-
trance you find yourself in bowl as
round as ''Punchbowl," but which is
five or six miles in diameter, from fif-
teen to eighteen miles in circumference,
and from 1000 to 1000 feet deep. The
surrounding cloud-capped peaks, form
5000 to 5000 feet above the sea and are
exquisitely green with moss and fern
and forest from summit to base. The
whole crater is beautifully wooded,
and makes one think of ''Ihe Happy
Valley of Rasselas.
If Kilauea is the largest active
crater in the world and Haleakala the
largest extinct crater, is not lao the
most beautiful?
If Punchbowl should have a carriage
road to it's summit, should not lao
crater have a good horse trail to its
CeuCeF {! Two OF Three uuuuI6u uOIIdIS
would make it.
l have followed a suggestion of Judge
Cation III trying to imagine some of the
circumstances of the origin of East
Maui.
While sleptin cavern on the rugged
side OF Haleakala, l dreamt. And saw
in my dream a grey-haired kahuna.
Pointing with skinny finger to the
mountain-tOp he said, "Child of yester-
day. Thou hest at the foot of Pele's an
cient throne. Behold beneath thee the
fertile plain. Behold on either hand the
ocean rolling in eternal unrest. The
mountain above the cloud rests in
eternal peace; but out OF tribulation all
great things are born.
In the icons of distant ages, when
earth was void, the venerable goddess
waved her wand, and from the depths,
with Titan throes and sounds unearthly,
uprose the oceans base. BY the might
of her outstretched hand she lifted from
the seething waves this rock-mOuntain
whereOn she established her throne, and
smiled while all nature trembled.
On every side fire fountains shoot high
in air their molten streams which fall
back into the fiery lake they feed, with
noise as the sound OF many waters.
Here and there craters within the
crater throw aloft, as though they would
assault he aven itself, burning rocks and
stones, which fall with splash and hiss
into the boiling ocean. Heaven and
earth are cOnfounded in the tumult. The
smoke OF the torment aSCends COntlnu-
allv. The fumes and the heavy masses
of vapor, rising from the steaming sea,
glow crimson with the lurid light.
In the murky midnight the quick
lightnings flash from earth to heaven,
and from heaven to earth again.
Peal on peal the fierce artillery
thunders from crag to crag till heaven
trembleS with the music in which Pele
rejoices. In yonder crater rolls sea of
fire whose surges dash upon adamantine
shores. Ever and anon they burst their
bounds and rush to the ocean in fiery
floods whose black remains you may
still see, lying like dead monsters,
stretched down the mountain side.
Unnumbered ages passed and were
buried in the tomb of Time. Time him
self grew weary while ashes turned to
clay-lava to rOck-and rock to dust.
The mountain clothed himself with for
ests, and the floods plOwed deep valleys
in his sides Pele's fires grew faint and
dim Her restless, molten sea was
hushed; about her feet her numerous
children ceased to sigh, leaving only the
hollow cones you here behold; and with
her wand she departed, to return never
more.
The voice ceased awOke. The seer
had vanished, but there stood snow
crowned HaleakaIa in the moonlight;
serene, stem and silent as the stars.
Paia, Maui. THOs. l. GULICK.