192 Kilauca and Manna Loa. 



December 6, rSg^. J. M. Lee. — The fire in the crater disappeared quietly during the past night . 



November 6, iSg^. Telephone line from Kailua to Volcano House completed this day. 



fanuary j, iSg6. The lava returned to the crater at 11:30 p.m. and formed during that 

 night a lake about two hundred by two hundred and fifty feet. There has been no fire in the crater 

 since December 6, 1894. 



January 28, iSg6. Fire disappeared again. 



April 21, TSg6. The crater of Mokuaweoweo broke out some time last night, but owing to 

 dense clouds the smoke was not noticed until this morning at 7:25 a.m. With exception of a slight 

 earthquake at 9:50 this evening everything is quiet, an;l at intervals when the clouds roll by we can 

 see the fire brilliantlv reflected in the sky. Kilauea is continually smoking, but otherwise inactive. 



April 28, i8g6. A party started for Mauna Loa's crater. 



I was in Italy at the time of the eruption of Mauna Loa in 1896, in the very 

 midst of the Vesuvian region, and so lost this interesting Hawaiian ertiption; but we 

 have most fortunately the record of two most competent men each in their department, 

 Dr. Benedict Friedlander of Naples, a vulcauologist of experience here as well as in 

 other regions, and Mr. D. Howard Hitchcock, whose paintings of Hawaiian volcanic 

 action have not been surpassed. I am fortunately able to present the graphic account 

 and photographs of one, and the painting of the other, although this last is but the ghost 

 of the beautiful original in the Bishop Mtisetim (PL LXVH). Dr. Friedlander's 

 ascent was made, it will be seen, from the same side as m^- own in 1864. I quote liis 

 published account more ftilly than I otherwise should, as it gives so mtich more than 

 the simple details of the volcanic action.'"* 



On the morning of April 21st, 1S96, while riding from Waiohiiui, Kau, towards Honoma- 

 lino in Kona, I noticed a large, white cumulus cloud, far above the fogs that frequently cover the 

 slopes of Mauna Loa. The evening of the same day there was a bright fire-reflection visible from 

 Honomalino; and because that glare was exactly in the direction of Mokuaweoweo, there could be 

 no doubt that I had the good fortune to be in the right time in the right spot. Though the usual 

 starting point for Mokuaweoweo be Kapapala ranch, or the Volcano House, and though I was not 

 even sure if Mauna Loa was accessible from any other side — without great difficulty at least — I decided 

 to try it, and had not to repent the attempt. The western slope of Mauna Loa is its shortest; and 

 the condition of the roads or trails, on the upper part of the lava, turned out to be by no means worse 

 than that on the southeastern slope. Succeeding parties probably would find it much easier, as we 

 had to seek for our road from the upper limit of the woods on ; none of our party had been up to the 

 summit from this side, not even the guide, who only knew the trail through the forests and how to 



get up to a certain height Our party was composed of Mr. John Ga.sper, Mr. Charley Ka as 



guide, a native boy, my European a.ssistant and myself. 



We left Mr. Gasper's house on the upper Kona road on horseback in the early morning of 

 April the 25th. The trail for some miles leads into a thick and most wonderful forest, in which I 

 saw the largest koa trees and fern trees I met with on the islands. The trail itself was in places 

 rather bad, but not worse than many others. In a height of about 4600 feet, a short distance before 

 Mr. John Paris' dairy is reached, the forest becomes less thick and by degrees is succeeded by the 

 form of vegetation characteristic of most of those districts of Hawaii where the formation of humus 

 is not \-et advanced sufficiently for supporting a richer vegetable life. Small shrub-like metrosideros 



'-^Tliruin's Hawaiian .\niiual, 1897, p. 72. .\lso in Iliiiniul iind linlc. Berlin. 



[570] 



