The Hawaiian gazette., 1902-08-29
TRIP TO THE TOP OF THE
WORLDS BIGGEST CRATER
What the Ascent of haleakaa Seemed Like TO
Tacoma Man...Monders OF Scenery
and Delights of Altitude.

The following is from an account oi
visit to the summit OF Halcakala ap-
} pearing in the Tacoma Ledger:
Two thousand feet from the summit
we came To- a piece OF galvanized iron.
+ OATS a parta di roofa Mosser Baldwin
he house on de top" said the guide.
He maka de fin house. plenty strong.
lie maka one gran. solide house; maka
I de biga stona, de Cementa. He worka
diechi. twenty men, plenty men. lie
maka de place for water, de biga els
trino. lie iiNa de fine window, de
stronga door. lie maka de key, one big
key. He clos him ught Plenty mules,
one gran campo; he worka ten, TWEEN
~. maybe forty day. lie puta on de
/ splendid roofa, de gran iron roofa. But
he no fiNa plenty. DE win come. He
blow Xix anything. Pouf! one pieca de
roofa go dat away! Pour! one pieca
de roufa go noder away. Messer Bald
win one DANA foola!"
In n few minutes we were at the
summit. / left camp duties to the guide
/ and ran to the edge and looked down
into another and different world. Here,
indeed. was the battle-ground OF the
gods of war, the scene of elemental.
primeval passions the ruins of a
phenomenon that in its display of pow
er, gorgeous coloring, resistless motion,
binding light and universal laundering
will never again be equaled until the
, final. abysmal plunge that shall end
our little worlds excursion.
The crater of Haleakala has nothing
of the regularity of Kilauea. Every
! inch of il speaks of action. Every foot
OF the rim is varied and jagged-torn
| in it's upburst, crushed in its falling,
scanned and worn by the successive lava
flows that must have come from that
/ tremendous cavity in floods of unimag-
/ Unable volume and power for untold
centuries. II is $500 feet to the bottom,
six or seven miles as you look across
/ to the southeastern gap and moro than
twenty miles around the vi way
down to the left in the easterh~ gap,
where the warmth and moisture of the
/ trade winds have reached in for z hun
dred years and more of peaceful mac
! tion, there Is a growth of shrubs, ferns.
grass and trees, m from the present
point of view there is no sign of vege-
/ table life save an occasional dwarfed
| fern, a bit of moss or lichen, or a hardy
i little edelweiss. They all seem dread
fully out of place, like an innocent
maiden in a Black Hills mining camp
a few white clouds are floating, mo-
| tionless, in the space below us, and
slightly conceal the further confines OF
this wonderful amphitheater. Far be-
meath them we can distinguish some OF
the twenty-five or more red blowholes
or cinder cones that cover the crater's
bottom in double line from abou
northeast to Observation-Disclosures
volcanoes from 400 to nearly 500 feet
high, and here they are merely pebbles
on the burnt sands of this old sea OF
lava!
Between the east and southeast gaps
the rim rises to the height of "A dis
tinct peak, handicapped, rugged, pic
turesque inviting to the mountain
climber, and almost enough SO to make
"A beginner indiscreet.
But there is plenty to fill ones
thoughts and occupy ones bodily anc
mental vigor without attempting tC
cross to that clouaiand. We walked 6
mile or so to the south, and every steI
opened up new vistas, showed us new
and undreamed-of effects of color, vari'
ETY. in lava formations and degrees II
the superlative of roughness, wildness
desolation and awe. We ventured owe
the same path and found the panorama
ever new. We went north nearly I,
the upper rim of the east gap-and al
before, ii was always fascinating, al
We We're not fortunate enough to Sc,
the spectre.