GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF HAWAII. 131 



it is au extinct volcano it is of especial interest and has the distinction of beiny 

 the highest island mountain in the world, though it is by no means so bulky 

 and imposing as its neighbor Mauna Loa. The ^Mauna Lo.i summit is only 150 

 feet below that of J\Iauna Kea, and were it not for the cinder cones that cap 

 the summit of the latter the former would be given its proper rank as first 

 among the island mountains of the world. 



Slauna Kea has probably been extinct for centuues, but nut lung enough 

 for the abundant rains which fall on its northeast side to furrow out its slopes 

 more than half way to its summit. Its lower slopes, however, are cut up info 

 many gulches from which the water pours into the ocean from the hanging val- 

 leys that notch the vertical sea cliffs all along the Hamakua and Hilo coast. 



As is iisual with the higher mountains of the group, its southwestern slopes 

 show little signs of erosion, and owing to the comparatively small amount of rain 

 that reaches that side it is almost bare of vegetation. The effect of rainfall 

 may be very clearly seen here, since the windward side has the upper limit of 

 its important vegetation at aboiit ten thousand feet, whereas the dry or southern 

 side has little if any vegetation on its slopes above seven thousand feet. 



The top of this mountain, like its neighbor Mauna Loa, is often covered 

 with snow that sometimes forms a glistening white cap as far down as two 

 thousand feet or more from the summit. Unlike Mauna Loa its sky line does 

 not end in a single crater. Its elliptical summit is rather thickly sprinkled 

 with a )iuinl)er of cinder cones ; about two dozen being above the l"2.50()-feet 

 contour line. One of these is occupied by a pond " forty feet deep and several 

 acres in extent. The pond is filled with water from the melting snow and on 

 several occasions has been found frozen over solid enough to bear the weight of 

 adventurous mountaineers. 



Tjuwer duv.-n there are a large number of small cones, as many as seventy- 

 five having been enumerated above the 6,500-foot contour on the survey maps, 

 while the outline of the lower flanks of the mountain is also relieved by them. 

 At about twelve thousand feet elevation there still remains the evidence of an 

 old adze quarry ^ from which the old-time Hawaiians secured much of the solid 

 clinkstone used by them in the manufacture of their stone implements. 



The Ascent ok .M.\rN.\ Ke.\. 



Mauna Kea may be ascended from Wainiea by way of the Huninula sheep 

 station on the southwest, and on the east side from Hilo liy way of Ship- 

 man's ranch. Horses may be ridden to the sununit plateau. The rise of the 

 mountain is gradual, averaging about four hundred feet elevation to the mile. 

 From the plateau at the summit a splendid view of the adjacent mountain is 

 secui-ed. To the southwest the outline of the summit crater of Mauna Loa can 

 lie traced, the summits being about t'.venty-five miles apart. The northerly slope 

 of ilauna Loa is much disfigured by recent erujitions, the flows of 1845. 1852. 



