a Mountain in the Island of Owhyhee, 439 



perceived no apparent difficulty before us : but we soon found 

 our mistake, and the representations of the natives verified; 

 for as vfQ endeavoured to advance, we found the side of the 

 mountain here and there covered with low scrubby wood and 

 ferns, so very dense in many places, that we were obliged to 

 make a path step by step for the whole party, which rendered 

 our progress slow and fatiguing; and, in some places, the 

 ground was covered over with a fragile crust of lava, which 

 broke under our feet, and we now and then stumbled into 

 chinks and crevices, which were really very dangerous ; whilst, 

 in other places, it sounded so hollow underneath us, that we 

 were every moment apprehensive of its breaking in, and swal- 

 lowing us up, in some hideous fissure or cavern. We, how- 

 ever, persevered under these discouraging circumstances till 

 about three in the afternoon, when perceiving that we had 

 scarcely diminished our apparent distance from the snow, and 

 being quite harassed and exhausted with fatigue, without any 

 prospect of soon overcoming our difficulties, it was agreed 

 upon to relinquish our pursuit, to the no small satisfaction of 

 the natives ; and, after taking some refreshment, we returned 

 again to the cavern, where we arrived in the dusk of the 

 evening. The night was very stormy, with high winds and 

 cold showers of sleet; and, next morning, we observed that 

 Mowna-roa was covered much lower down with fresh snow, 

 so that, had we succeeded in our attempt to ascend it, we 

 should probably have suffered severely from the inclemency of 

 the weather, exposed to these rigorous blasts, without any 

 shelter, on the bleak side of this huge mountain. 



The centre of the island near which we were now stationed, 

 between the three great mountains, together with the exten- 

 sive valleys which separate them, forms a flat dreary tract of 

 inland country of considerable extent, and nearly the same 

 elevation, and which is apparently incapable of any kind of 

 cultivation ; the trees and brushwood, with which it is here and 

 there thinly covered, indicate the poverty of the soil by their 

 stinted and scrubby appearance; but as the volcanic dregs 

 with which it has been strewed from the adjacent mountains, 

 are continually mouldering away by the busy and constant 

 operations of time, this tract may be said to be in a state of 

 slow and progressive improvement, and future ages will pro- 

 bably find it clothed with a rich carpet of verdure. 



To give some idea of the elevation and temperature of this 

 inland region, I observed the barometer on the morning of the 

 23d at the mouth of our cavern, where the mercury stood at 

 25 in. JSpts., and the thermometer was at the same time at 

 57°. I had also observed both, at the same place, on the 



