Sketch of the Life of Mr, David Douglas, 347 



behind with some food for the bird-catcher, and his two compa- 

 nions, we prepared to descend, and started at nine A. M. to 

 retrace the path by which we had come. Gratified though one 

 may be at witnessing the wonderful woks of God, such a pricalen 

 as the summit of this mountain presents, still it is with thankfulness 

 that we again approach a climate more congenial to our natures, 

 and welcome the habitations of our fellow men, where we are 

 refreshed with the scent of vegetation, and soothed by the melody 

 of birds. When about three miles below the camp, my three 

 companions of yesterday appeared like mawkins on the craggy 

 lava, just at the very spot where I had come down. A signal 

 was made them to proceed to the camp, which was seen and 

 obeyed, and we proceeded onwards, collecting a good many plants 

 by the way. Arriving at Strawberry Well, we made a short halt 

 to dine, and ascertained the barometer to be 25*^ 750' ; air 5*7^ ; 

 and the well 51°; dew 56°. There were vapouring light clouds 

 in the sky and a S. W. wind. We arrived at Kapupala at 4 P.M. 

 The three other men came up at seven, much fatigued, like my- 

 self. Barometer at Kapupala at 8 P. M. 2*7° 936', air 57° and 

 the sky clear." 



Thus was described for the first time Mouna Roa, within whose 

 summit and flanks is contained one of the outlets of earth's inte- 

 rior fires, — an opening to that awful laboratory, of whose opera- 

 tions we may have a slight glimpse, standing fearfully at a distance, 

 while our comprehension quails at the attempt to investigate 

 their causes or origin. In the crater of Mouna Roa, are the deep 

 caverns, the profound unfathomable abysses, the ceaseless flow of 

 fiery molten matter, which sometimes glides like a rapid stream 

 into these abysses, till it is lost to the view, and in other places 

 surges and boils up into swelling lofty jets, as if impatient of 

 being pent in by those walls of lava, scoriae, and ashes, which 

 itself in its own former fury had formed. How vastly deep, ex- 

 panded, and powerful must be the interior movement that pro- 

 duces all this ! Well has it been surmised that the dreadful 

 earthquake originates in the same agency. AVcre the plastic 

 fluid masses of the active volcano solidified, and crusted over, we 

 should then have the hollow rumbling and onward wave of the 

 earthquake, overturning men's habitations like anthills, and no 

 exit being permitted, the solid granite would be upheaved, and the 

 foundations of the mountains laid. 



Mr. Douglas continued on these Islands botanizing, and was at 



