On the Top of Manna Loa. ig 



mit plain is much fissured, and several small cones both north and south, but on the 

 same general line, mark eruptive agencies. So extensive is this plain that one walks 

 nearly a mile before catching sight of the ocean, consequently no one at the sea level 

 has ever seen the top about the crater, and when fire is seen at the summit, it means 

 that the rising column of lava must attain a height of considerably over a thousand 

 feet to be visible from the shore. At nine o'clock we commenced the descent as our 

 time was limited, and about two in the afternoon a thick misty rain came on, and our 

 guide wished to stop as he could not see the wa}' ; we had, however, three compasses, 

 and proceeded without difficult}', although drenched, to the plain, where we found a 

 cave and contrived to light a fire. At nine o'clock the rain ceased, the stars came out 

 brightly, and as the cave still dripped, we rolled ourselves up in our blankets, wet 

 through as we were, and with our feet to the fire slept well all night. In the morning 

 we wrung out our clothes, which dried in the coxirse of two hours as we were walking 

 rapidly in the sun, and about noon rested on the edge of the forest, several miles west 

 of where we had come up, at a spring which, as they always are on this island, was 

 in a very improbable place, — the most elevated part of an open plain. Its position 

 was marked b}- a pile of stones ; no stream ran from it, and it was carefully covered 

 to keep the wild hogs out, whose marks we saw near b}- among the strawberries and 

 on the trees. Striking into the woods we walked down at a rapid rate, although the 

 muddiness of the path, and the many trees that had fallen across the way, made it 

 very laborious. Added to this, it began to rain as we came into the region of ferns, 

 and we were again wet through. Vegetation on the leeward side of Manna Loa 

 only extends to the height of six or seven thousand feet, but on the windward slopes 

 to nearly ten thousand. 



It is not difficult to obtain the average slope of this mountain, but seen from 

 Kilauea the slopes to the southwest and to the northeast var}' perceptibl}', but the 

 angle of 7 is the average, and explains the name Las Mesas given by the Spanish 

 discoverers of the group, also the "Long Mountain." (See Fig. 13.) 



In 1880 I made the ascent of Manna Loa from the eastern side accompanied 

 only by an excellent guide, but mounted on an admirable mule. We came to the 

 dairy at Ainapo in the afternoon, and after a short halt, pushed on to the limit of 

 vegetation where there was still grass for our animals, and rested for the night. 

 Our view of Kilauea was almost a bird's eye one, and the appearance was of a great 

 city in flames. The crags about Halemaumau seemed the ruins of burning struc- 

 tures, and it was not i\ntil sheer weariness closed my eyes that I could look at 



anything else (Fig. 14). Bv three o'clock in the morning we were on our upward 



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