The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-22
FORMER SURVEY
OF M0KUAWEOWEO
(By ]. N. Alexander, 1857

During last year 1 was engaged for
many months in surveying lands on
Mauna Hualalai and Mauna Loa, in
| Hawaii, and in that way had an op-
portunity of making Investigations of
craters and lava flows that may be of
interest to those studying volcanic phe-
nomena.
1t would seem that as the best his
| tories. are those written long after the
events which they record, when all the
reports of eye witnesses can be care
fully examined, 80 the best descriptions
of volcanic action may be obtained
| long after eruptions, by carefully in
vestigating the records indelibly in
scribed in the rocks.
The ascent of Mauna Loa is so sell
| dom made that a brief account of my
excursions may be interesting.
On the LIST of September, 1885, I set
out in company with Mr.. ]. S. Emerson,
| of the Hawaiian Government Survey,
| to ascend that mountain from the table
land east of Hualalai, along the south
side of the lava flow of 1852 which, as
many will remember was visited by
party from Oahu College. We were
provided with mules for riding and
pack donkeys, and accompanied by
several natives, including a so-called
guide, who lost himself and delayed US
over a day in searching for him.
Our route led first through a narrow
belt of forest consisting of mamane,
ohia and sandalwood trees: then
through a scanty vegetation of ohelos
and the beautiful Cyathodes Tameia-
meiae, and at last beyond the limits
of vegetation, without a vestige even
of moss or lichen, over wonderful and
awful billowy waste of 'tpahoehoe'
lava, traversed by tracts of "aa'' and
deep chasms.
THE FLOW OF 1859.
At about two-thirds of the distance
toward the summit we passed the rag
ged crater hill from which the out
break of 1859 had issued, and here our
path was strewed with pumice and
"Peles hair from that eruption. There
was an enormous quantity of lava
poured forth from the small fissure Of
this crater, forming a stream from half
a mile to two miles wide, and reaching
nearly thirty miles to the ocean at
Kiholo. Lower down I counted eight
cen species of ferns and dozen kinds
of heterogeneous plants already grow
ing on this flow. In this vicinity the
caverns contained many carcasses of
wild goats In one further south 1
counted eighty of their skeletons and
decaying bodies. They had probably
Il CHI ha1
able to leap out.
When near the summit our guide
warned US to descend, because of an
approaching storm: but Mr.. Emerson
and I, anxious to accomplish the OBJ
ject of our journey, set out without him
through the driving rain that soon
turned into hail and then into snow
marking our route with flags so that
we might be able to find our way back.
THE CRATER'S BRINK.
In a short time we reached the brink
of the vast crater of Mokuaweoweo,
filled with fog and surrounded by
frightful precipices Along this brink
were numerous deep assures filled with
ice and water the beginning of cleav-
age for avalanches into the crater.
Here and for quarter of a mile be-
low. we observed many rocks of a
different kind from the surface lavas.
solid, fiinty fragments of the founda-
ton walls, weighing from fifty pounds
to a ton, which had formerly fallen
down upon the crater floor and had al
forwards been hurled out during erup-
TONS I noticed similar rocks around
the summit craters of Hualalai 1t
would be unsafe to approach the era
ter at this place during eruptions, when
such brfckbats were flying.
We returned to our camp about noon
and sent the poor animals, which had
stood all night in the ic: wind tied to
Jagged rocks in the care of the guide
down the mountain: and with the help
of one native with much difficulty, car
ried a tent and supplies 70 the sum-
nit
At evening the fog lifted and gave
rs glimpse of the craters. 1mrne-
dfately below US lay the central era
ter. surrounded by almost perpendicu-
lar walls. with a pahoehoe floor streak