20 



Kilanea and Maitna Lon. 



waj-, and early in the morning halted near the brink of the crater a little south of 

 the Wilkes camp, to which the officers of the American expedition with a large com- 

 pany of native bearers had climbed fort}' years before with so much trouble. My 

 object was to see the traces of an eruption in Mokuaweoweo, the summit crater which, 

 appearing in the spring of that year, had induced me to again visit Hawaii. All the 

 way up the temperature of the caves had been considerably above that of the outer air, 

 but on the summit there were only the cold lavas of the May eruption. Much limu 



Fig. 14. HAI,KMAUMAU IN 18.S8. FURNE.\U.X. 



or basaltic pumice covered the plain for acres, and the wall of the crater was very loose 

 and insecure where we stood. 



We returned by the same trail, if trail there was, it was invisible to me, but m_v 

 guide never hesitated, neither did the mule, and we returned safely to Ainapo before dark, 

 and were at the Volcano House at Kilauea next day in the early forenoon. For some 

 distance above Ainapo the way led through a dry open forest, with man}- dead koa trees 

 and little sub-vegetation owing to the herds of cattle pastured there ; when once beyond 

 this forest, the vegetation faded rapidly and the surface assumed the roughness of the 

 ordinar}' lava stream, and was undulating as on the other side, and only here and there 



smooth for a short distance. Cracks often crossed our trail, and sometimes were 



[398] 



