12 Kilauca and Manna Loa. 



thick, would have given way to anj- violent explosion. (Fig. 9.) A similar blow-hole 

 was described b^- Ellis lower down the mountain. He ascended Hualalai in 1823 and 

 found on the side of the mountain a large extinguished crater, about a mile in circum- 

 ference and apparently four hundred feet deep. The sides were regularlj- sloped, and 

 at the bottom was a mound with an aperture in its top. Bv the side of this large crater, 

 divided from it by a narrow ridge of rock, was another, fifty-six feet in circumference, from 

 which volumes of sulphurous smoke continually ascended. No bottom could be seen, and 

 on throwing stones into it the}- were heard to strike against its sides for eight seconds. 

 There were two other apertures very near this, nine feet in diameter, and apparentlj' two 

 hundred feet deep." This corresponds so nearly with the blow-hole we saw on the sum- 

 mit that it is almost certain that vapors formed or at least enlarged both. 



FIG. 10. THK Sl'M.MIT <)K H1'AI,AI.AI SKKN FROM MAUNA I<OA (gaX) FKKT). 



From the vegetation of the summit I should not consider Hualalai more than 

 8500 feet high,'' although some have placed it at 10,000. It is covered with lateral 

 cones and its summit is flat, with many pit craters. More than one hundred and fifty 

 lateral cones have been counted and it will be seen from the sketch made from the 

 slopes of Mauna Loa the same summer that they vary both in size and in slope. 



In the afternoon we camped about a mile from our last night's resting place, 

 between two cones. Our guide shot two of the native geese {Nesochen sandvicensis) ^v^hxoh 

 were fine eating. The number of these geese has been much underrated. Although 

 they are found only on the highlands of Hawaii and Maui, their number admits of the 

 annual slaughter of several hundred without sensible diminution. Thej- build their 

 nests in the grass and lav two or three eggs, white and about the size of a common 

 goose's egg. They are web-footed, but are never seen in the water; indeed there is 

 no water on the uplands, and their food is principally berries and a common Sonchus. 

 The strawberries {Fragaria chilensis) were nearly out of season. Trees were compara- 

 tively small. The mamane, sandal-wood, Dodoncea in'scosa, Geranium cuneaititH, were 



"Ellis, Tour (if Hawaii, Ivondon edition. 



'Height as obtained many years after this by the Hawaiian Survey is 8275 feet. 



