The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-29

moved on in stately measure to the mu-
sic of the spheres then just beginning
to show in the turquoise sea above US.
| Our specter ships were manned, royal
banners flying, rich tapestries hanging
from mast and rigging. Our palaces
of pearl were peopled; opal and jasper,
gold and ruby studded the walls; red
and blue lotus flowers, hibiscus and
oleander hedges and great masses of
gorgeous unnamed blossoms waved to
gentle breezes and spread broadcast
their delicious fragrance. So beautiful
it was the very sun did glow with pride
and swell with admiration of the worlds
he had created, and the whole sky was
one mass of harmonious reds and gold
en- tints; and yet by minute gradations
no eye could follow, the tints changed
to gray of pearl, to the dull beauty of
amethyst, to the virginia. simplicity of
glaciers cold.
, The warmth of summer was fresh
ened by the keen air of the north. The
bright stars appeared in the deep blue
above Our ghosts and spectreS re-
turned, but seemingly in even quieter
mood, as if in keeping with the hour.
We looked after the horses once more,
sampled our provisions and then tried
to find a soft spot in the little cave
Baldwin's house was so spacious that,
being roofiess, the cold might winds
searched out every nook and corner in
it and we found the cramped quarters
under the lee of a ledge of lava much
more to our liking.
However, sleep was impossible. In
spite of blankets and wraps X was
cold, clear, keen, rarified air that got
in under all our covers and played
havoc with our circulation. Then, too,
lava does not compare with a hair mat
tress and downy quilts for comfort and
ease. 1t may be pahoehoe when you lie
down, but it feels like the toughest of
IA after a few minutes. Besides, we
could hear the horses stirring little
distance below. 1 presume they found
the air chilly, and every few minutes
we determined that they must be loose,
and that fear kept us on the jump all
night long. We realized it would be
no mere holiday outing if we were left
on that summit with horses gone and
our blankets and saddles, ETC., 70 pack
for twenty miles over a rough trail
There was something to repay us for
loss of sleep, however. And towards
morning, when the full moon was high
in the heavens and the bright stars
studded the armament and threw out
II
lava masses in bold relief, we forgot all
discomforts and drank in the weird
beauty of the scene. Not cloud re-
lieved the blackness of volcanic ash and
warm lava lodges in the great hole be-
low u.s. The cold, reflected light of
moon and planet, and the brilliancy of
stars, too far removed to bring us
warmth, served only to sharpen the
shadows and mystify our unfamiliar
vision.
Surely, this was no playground of
elemental forces, so quiet, so calm. 1t
was not here that earth's fiercest pas
sions once exhibited themselves in
seething floods, in furnaces of fire and
lightning play that signaled back to
farthest heaven in thunders that tore
the universe apart and echoed from the
pearly gates down to the very jaws of
hell.
Here all was peace, the peace of
death, perhaps, but nothing but the
mystery of our own imaginings could
break that peace. The clouds still
banked the horizon and hid the noun
tain slopes below US. Hawaii and
the other islands. the picturesque peaks
of Western Maui, the cane fields and
other evidences of the presence of man,
all land and sea, were lost. Then the
miracle happened of which we had read.
which we had come to see-the sun
rose! Just a suspicion of color at first,
like kiss upon lips cold in death. We
could not feel its warmth. We could
scarcely credit it's promises. But, as
the native legend has it, the sun was
already trapped, and through the
masses of billowy white that had con-
cealed King Maui's workers and must
have fooled the lord of day as it did US,
appeared their many colored ribands
of beaten brass and gold, of lustrous
and pearl-broidered silk, fibrous ropes
and nets of sapphire ruby, amethyst
and indestructible gems. With gentle,
persuasive irresistible force they drew
the sun from out the hot South seas,
fresh and glowing from his morning
bath, and brought him captive to make
a golden crown for good King Maui
and warm and vivify this beautiful but
death-cold charnei house and make of
it a veritable Haleakala, the house of
the sun.
There is one phenomenon that usual
~ occurs here at sunset which is as
unique as it is beautiful.
The change in the air currents causes
the cloud banks to unrCll and unfold
and following the rising strata of
warmer atmosphere, they come billow-
ing, flowing and tumbling through the
east gap and spread out through the
width and length of the great crater
Tor all the world like lot of fat. feecy
nerinos piling through narrow en-
rance into an ocean wharf pen.
Authentic accounts have also been
given by the tourists of the Spectre
3rocken,' the phenomenon that is seen
t certain conjunctions of sun and cloud
md mist when the shadows of the OBJ
servers standing on the crater's edge
ire projected in enlarged and even
gigantic form upon the white masses
N the other side OF the crater.