Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-06-12
ON THE TRAIL Of MAUNA LOA'S
LAVAFLDW WITHHIKERPARTY

had TO admit all this, but The could
prove by his compass that we were
going south. II was q brand4new one,
received the day he started, on this
trip, made by Doe & Roe, the great
right. II was an expensive affair, one
of those wonderful things that sho "
your height, breadth. depth, weight,
level. angle of ascent; your syzygy,
abscfssa, increment and excrement of
moisture, barometric pressure, and d.
titude in feet and degrees; and 1t had
q compass. But the compass was
plainly marked with the E to the left,
and the w to the right, Of north.
your compass is wrong" said l.
f@You ninny, any child knows that If
you point your right arm to the east
Tor rising sun, you are facing north
That's one of the test-questions in
third grade geography" This salts
fled the rest of us that we were going
north, though Forbes still insisted that
when he held the e Of his compass to-
ward the sun In the east, the needle
proved that we were going sout So
every time we came to an extra big
I,log remarked: Il think it's about
time we got out our compass again,
and he would look at II long and
earnestly.
b 4 can't help believing it was
stamped this way with purpose" said
he; ~this firm sends scientific instru-
ments all over the world,
Sure, 1t was made with purpose"
said II: sthe only trouble Is, the pHr.
pose was inverted.
Nevertheless II was somewhat dis
concerning to know. that we were go.
Ing north contrary to the compass;
Forbes especially was addle-headed
over II. When we returned to Homo
lulu, Prof Brigham explained the dis
crepapcy by showing that it was a
mariners compass; made for timber
cruisers, and stamped marine style
under the impression that timber
cruiser cruises the seas, and II his
ship we're headed due north and should
then veer towards the w, showing
that the ship had peered towards the
west; which would be quite correct
| think the simpler explanation would
be to state that the compass showed
that our mountain trail ran both north
and south.
In spite of the compass, at 11:20
after strenuous winding climb to 4375
feet, we reached the flow, still glow
ing in the cracks and with burning
trees on top and alongside of it. We
saw there a typical tree-mold in pro-
cess of formation: the flow bad part
ly covered an immense koa log that.
lay across its path; the lava had hard.
ened over this log, which was even
then burning in its core. "a hours after
the lava had struck ii, and wasn't
much consumed at that. The burn
ing log kept the lava red hot. and the
bridge Of lava kept the log from burn.
ing very fast; so there they were, each
defying the other 10 do his worst, with
the odds In favor of the inexorable
lava
We pulled some chunks of red-hot
lava out Of one Of the cracks, and tried
to imbed some coins In it, like George.
Somehow the lava wouldn't either in
gest our coin or cough up any of its
own; so we concluded George had
had his sample made to order.
We lunched by the warmth of the
middle foe-nail Of the lava flow. Its
ankle and leg extended way up past
the horizon, miles of shapeless waves
of brutal lava rising above and behind
one another, covered with the tremolo
of hot air and still emitting sulphurous
fumes. II was all savage black IA,
the kind of lava that cools rapidly and
into brittle shapeless masses,
as compared with pa-hoe-hoe, the kind /
that flowed easily and cooled smoothly
into regular curved shapes. Pa-hoe-
hoe and IA are good words. and every.
body has been showing off his knowl.
edge by saying them, lately.
We had walked some ten or eleven |
miles to reach this flow, steep climb |
Ing nearly all the way, but over trail /
SO winding that the end of the flow
Is probably about seven miles in |
straight line from the roade II |
seemed about 100 miles going down |
The trouble with the winding of the
trail is that 1t winds on the level /
spots and takes the pIunges straight
up and down. It is just like q COW
to do that, ID Kahuku cattle ranch.
This flow originated northeast OF
Pun keo-keo, flowed southerly and |
skirted for q. distance the east edge |
Of the flow Of 1887 Its easterly border
is so extremely irregular and wide
spreading that It didn't look good to
us to try to reach the source of 1t oad
foot that afternoon. as Hardy and |
Waldron had tried with horses and
failed; so we hoe-footed it back to
camp.
ITO be Continued.)