The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-18
Interesting and Beautiful
Cloud Effects.
Rarefied and Dry Atmosphere Pro.
duCes Curious Results Upon
the System,
Especial Correspondence. !

When at noon on August Sth 1 stooc
alone at the edge Of the crater of Mo
kuaweoweo, my feelings were of q
somewhat mixed character. l had just
said goodbye to Mr.. John Gaspar who
had brought me up, and before me lay
period of solitude of three weeks OF
more. From a previous ascent made
on April 1st l gathered that it would
be very cold, but beyond this 1 knew
nothing of the climatic conditions to
which 1 would be exposed. However,
set to work at once to arrange the in
terror of my tent, got out my meteoro-
logical instruments and planned my
course of examination of the crater.
Before many days had passed it be-
came apparent that the conditions of
my existence were not unlike some of
those to be found in the moon. In the
complete sterility of the surface, in the
very existence of the grim old crater,
at the edge of which / had pitched my
tent, in the rarifaction of the atmos-
air, as indicated by observations on
the relative humidity; in the prevail
ing cloudless sky by day and in the
clear star-lit calm and dewless nights;
in the severe cold at night and in the
scorching of the sun in the day, there
were reproduced many of the condi-
tions we would look for in that planet
Then, again, the air at first was highly
electrified. My red blanket cracked
under my hands at night and | could
trace on it's surface in phosphorescent
hues with my finger-nail the letter A
as l lay completely enveloped in it's
folds. The detached wings of dead
butterflies picked up from the ground
provokingly to my fingers, and
l began to imagine myself an electric
battery. The effects of these meteoro-
logical conditions soon showed them
selves in the cessation of the action of
the skin, in severe headaches and sore
throat; in tendency to palpitation
and dyspnOea, and in sleeplessness,
general lassitude and loss of appetite,
most of which symptoms l attributed
to the great lack Of moisture in the
air. began seriously to think that Mr.
Gaspar would find a mummy on his
return, when short spell of damp
weather intervened, and most of the
symptoms having disap-
peared, 1 began to take more interest
in my surroundings. And soon l found
that l had a regular visitor twice a
day in the shadow of the long noun
tain. For about 20 minutes after sun
rise and before sunset the shadow of
T1,A
the sky of the opposite horizon. 1t
seemed as if some Titanic brush had
been at work on the sky far away, and
had worked in the profile of the noun
tain with a very uncanny blue Most
evenings 1 used to light my pipe and
watch the arrival and disappearance of
the old mountains shade. The peak
was the last to go, and that was the
signal for my retiring for the night. l
was in the habit Of getting up three or
four times in the night to make obser-
vation of the wind and weather. At
1 a. N. on August 9th there was a most
beautiful lunar halo, displaying most
of the rainbow hues, the purple inside
and the orange outside being most
This was repeated in a
less marked degree in the following
night, and after that the phenomenon
During my sojourn on the mountain
top there was very little rain. only
about 30-100 of an inch This is in
contrast TO the rainfall above
in August, where, as l learn
from the Rev Mr.. Davis, more than
10 inches fell at an elevation as 1 infer
of some 1,200 feet. Most of the rain
on the summit fell during the night of
August 18th and 18th, and in that night