Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-06-12
ON THE TRAIL of MAUNA LOA'S
LAVAFLOW With HIKERPARTY


had to admit all this, but he could
prove by his compass that We were
going south. II was a brand-new one
received the day he started on this
trip, made by Doe & Roe, the great
instrument makers, and IL must be
| right II was an expensive affair, one
OF those wonderful things that sho y
| your height, breadth, depth, weight,
! level, angle of ascent; your syzygy
abscissa. increment and eXcrement OF
moisture, barometric pressure, and al.
titude in feet and degrees; and it had
a 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 I.
: ''You ninny. any child knows that If
you point your right arm to the east
FOR 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
:eyery time we came to- an extra big
ilog remarked: 81 think it's about
time we got out our compass again, I"
and he would look at it long and
earnestly.
81 can't help believing It was
stamped this way with purpose" said
he; this firm sends scientific instrh-
ments all over the world" &,H
Sure, IL was made with purpose"
said J.; "the only trouble is, the pur.
pose was inverted" -..
Nevertheless 1t was somewhat dis.
concerning to know that we were GO.
Forbes especially was addIe-headed
over it. When we returned to Homo
lulu, Prof Brigham explained the dis
crepancy by showing that it was a
mariners compass; made for timber
cruisers, and stamped marine style
under the impression that a timber.
cruiser cruises the seas, and If his
ship were headed due north and should
then veer towards the w, showing
that the ship had veered 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 a 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 had 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 1t, 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 to do his worst, with
the odds in favor of the memorable
lava.
We pulled some chunks Of red-hot
lava out OF one of the cracks, and tried
to imbed some coins in 1t, 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 toe-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. 1T was all savage black IA,
the kind of lava that cools rapidly and
crumples 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 "a 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 road. il |
seemed about 100 miles going down
The trouble with the winding of the |
trail is that II winds on the level /
spots and takes the plunges straight
up and down. II is just like COW
to do that, In Kahuku cattle ranch.
This flow originated northeast OF |
Tuu-hCO-hCO, hONCu SOulhCfiJ any
skirted for distance the east edge
Of the. flow Of 1887 Its easterly border
is so extremely irregular and wide
that It didn't look good te
us to try to reach the source of it OH
foot that afternoon. as Hardy and
Waldron had tried with horses ami
failed; so we hot-footed it back tt
camp. <..... :.@
(To be Continued) /