Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1899-09-14

necessity TO carry all provisions for tbs
| Journey and TO sustain the slock o1
passing from tropical heat to glacia
cold. All these difficulties have com
bined to make the summit crater Of
/ Mauna Loa a spot rarely visited by
men.
! From Hilo, Muna Lea seems insig-
nificant Over TO the north Mauna
Kea IS majestic, and its snow top hangs
1 in the heavens like some fixed cloud
! The sister peak in the south seems
| scarcely more than a hill There is
| little more than a hundred feet differ
| ence of altitude in favor Of Mauna Kea
/ but the difference to the eye is most
misleading Mauna Loa has a long
even slope in every direction from the
summit to the sea, and even the sum
NIT is a part Of that long fiat curve
without prominent feaures. Maunl
Kea never lo~es It's SHOWS; Mauna
Lea rarely has enough snow, even a,
the same height. to be visible down be
low. Some freak Of the winds dis
charges the air Of its moisture before
/ it reaches the freezing attitudes. The
same insiguificaace continues at higher
POINTS OF view At the Volcano house,
on the brink OF the Kilauea crater,
Mauna I.oa rises 10000 fee within %
miles. yet the slope is so gradual nd
so devoid Of TIE markings OF valley de-
ore, g.:s, *itet..s.he. massive mountain
continues to seem no more than hill.
At the very top of that hill is the crater
of NIokuaweoweo, and it is a long and
weary climb before the mountaineer
car stand on the brink and look down
into the incandescent lava.
The few travellers who have m
proved the infrequent opportunity to
see Mokuaweoweo in activity and have
essayed the climb have generally
started from the Volcano house,
whence the trip to the summit may be
made in two days Lately a German
Alpinist has assembled the mountain on
its shorter western slope and proved
the practicability Of riding to the last
stretch of the slope This route will
add greatly to the number OF visitors,
If the present eruption does not put
new face on that side of the mountain.
Starting from the Volcano house the
trail winds at the edge o. the timber.
II is high enough for the air to be
chilly and unfavorable for much vege-
tation and the lava is too new to afford
more than the smallest pockets of thin
soil in which scanty ferns may sprout
and play their part in adding humus to
prepare for stu-dier growths, At the
timber line there is nothing but fern
and ohelo berries. the sweet and hardy
fruit which the old myths cnnsecrated
to Pele as the goddess Of the fires Of the
mountain For a few miles the trail,
not to be distinguished by eyes less
keen than those Of one Of the very few
Hawaiians competent to serve as a
guide on this infrequent exploration,
continues at the edge of the timber
such as il is After leaving this poor
shelter there is nowhere enough shade
to cover a mouse. Even the grass van
ishes, Only here and there is it pos
sible to find a few stunted spears
pocketed away in chinks and crannies
where a teaspoonful of lava dust has
found a refuge from the searching
wind The thin air seems like q
ragged screen. the sun comes nearer
and scorches the skin with a more than
July fervor while the body is SILVER
ing in q more than December frost It
is the first hardship Of this trip; 1t is
also the last to pass away. 1t would
be hard to devise a more severe trial
for the skin than to be scOrched and
baked by fcrvid sun rays and in an in
slant to be wrapped in a wet blanket
as a cloud descends and rests on the
mountain, often to the complete OBJ
scuradon of the trail.
There is only one relief to the waste
of lava No ferns grow on these
higher slopes; the ohelo berry has
given up tho hard struggle; but one
plant is hardy enough to bear the
frost the sweep Of the wind the learth
of soil It seems to grow on the bare
lava flow; it raises its flower spike like
u -iIl'if iiloA III tllt VI A>ti1 81 HAS It
cluster Of leaves that glisten ike
water falling over rocks. This is the
silver sword II Is as much the noun
taineer's flower in Hawaii as the edel-
weiss I'm Switzerland. II grows only
at the high levels and to come back
with a bunch of its silvery leaves
means mountain climbing and rock
scramb'ing The silver sword is a lily
wi.h incorspicuous flowers. all its
beauty being in the long slender leaves.
which are like frosted silver. and as
they dry become ribbons so light that
the merest puff sets them floating like
gossamer.
The trail is hard and rough There
is the choice Of one lava or the other.
and one is pasSable only through com
parison with the other which is SO
much worse. When the clouds lift and
it Is possible TO examine the prospect.
the guide points out dark streaks on
the mountain slopes and gives the his
tory Of each so far as 1T Is known. for
these are the tracks OF former erup-
lions All this lava rests on the stones