a Mountain in the Island of OwhyJiee. 207 



sticks, which the natives earnestly requested us not to disturb 

 or remove when we took possession of it: and we strictly 

 obeyed their injunction, conceiving that sacred places and 

 religious forms, whatever they are, ought to be held equally 

 inviolable everywhere; for the untutored savage, in worship- 

 ping his god in a gloomy forest, may be as sincere in his prayer, 

 and, probably, may derive as much consolation from his re- 

 ligion at the awful moment of dissolution, as many more 

 enlightened, who habitually bend the knee before a rich altar, 

 and offer up their devotion in a splendid temple. 



Finding we were so near accomplishing our object, a mes- 

 senger was despatched to Karakakooa, to make our progress 

 known at the vessels, and to bring from thence some things 

 wanted to render our situation comfortable on the mountain. 



In the evening, the thermometer stood at 58° ; and I was 

 much surprised to find the temperature so nearly the same as 

 it was in the lower part of the wood in the morning, though 

 we had ascended, since that time, upwards of 4000 feet of the 

 mountain. This was probably owing to the strong and con- 

 stant exhalations going on in the daytime, amongst the aggre- 

 gate assemblage of vegetables in this dense forest ; keeping up 

 a fanning breeze amongst the boughs, and tending greatly to 

 diffuse the same temperature, even at different heights, through- 

 out the woody regions of these mountains. But when this 

 cause ceased at night, and a heavy dew or small rain pro 

 duced a contrary operation, the temperature next morning 

 was found to be very different, for the thermometer then was as 

 low as 43^, at half past seven ; which, in this instance, showed 

 a difference of about 1 6°, between the extremes of what may 

 be termed the temperate zone of these mountains. 



As we were now very eager to gain the summit of the 

 mountain, we set out pretty early on the 19th, even contrary 

 to the wishes of our guide and the rest of the natives, who, 

 notwithstanding large fires being kept up, were continually 

 coughing the whole night, and now complained so much of 

 the cold, that they were unwilling to stir till the day advanced ; 

 and well they might, for, besides the effect of the damp chilly 

 air of the forest upon their constitutions and thinly clad 

 bodies, they also powerfully felt the change in our tempera- 

 ture, of nearly 40° by the thermometer, since we left the sea- 

 side, in the space of little more than as many hours. 



The forest here being thinner of trees, and less encumbered 

 with ferns and underwood, we began our progress, with a few 

 attendants to direct our course, as there was no path ; and in 

 about half an hour we got out, at the upper edge of the wood, 

 where we saw the summit of our mountain at no great dis- 



V 4 



