152 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



1855, 1880 and ISDO all beins plainly visible fnnu the summit nf ^launa Kea — 

 the white mountain. 



Dr. C. II. Hitchcock, who made the ascent in 1885, writing oi the recent 

 flows visible on Mauan Loa says: "They are narrow and tortuous near their 

 sources, spreading out low down into black extensive areas, almost coalescing. 

 Besides these, others of prehi.storic age can be traced and nowhere can one be 

 more impressed hy the fact that the mountain has been built up by intermittent 

 lava flows, and can appreciate the certainty that millions of years were required 

 to construct this eminence." When not covered with snow the surface of the 

 plateau t)f Mauna Kea is described as a desiilate gravelly plain on which occur 

 five or six species of plants resembling those of the colder climates of hitih alti- 

 tudes. As reported by I'rofessor MacCaughey, the lake at the summit, though 

 very cold throughout the year, sujiports a very luxuriant gi'owth of green algiv. 



Hli.\L.\LAI. 



Along the western coast of the island fn the southwest of ^Mauna Kea, and 

 about equal in distance from Kohala to the north and Mauna Loa to the south, 

 is Hualalai. It is a much .smaller mountain than Mauna Kea, but otherwise re- 

 sembles it in its general outlines and in having no characteristic summit crater. 

 It is 8,269 feet high and has its base entirely within the Kona district. Its 

 lower base slopes rpiite gradually, but the upper iiart of the mountain is uuich 

 steeper and is muuh and difticult of ascent. The unrth side of the UKiuntain 

 appears quite bare, but the opposite side is well wooded. Its slojies are dotted with 

 many cinder cones — hundreds perhaps, which increase in size ;uid niunber 

 toward the top. 



The few naturalists who have ascended this lawless moinitain luive found its 

 summit covered with crater bowls. ^ cinder cones and pit craters. Some of the 

 craters have gravel bottoms, while others are formed with hard iiasalt flooi's. 

 One of the features of the summit is the '"bottnmless pit" — a blow h!)le twenty 

 feet in diameter and 400 feet deej). 



The Eri'ption of 1801. 



The last eruption of Hualalai is placed at about 1801. It occurred from an 

 opening on the sea or western side of the mountain. From there the lava deseende.l 

 to the sea in a wedge-shaped stream. The flow was a vi'vy liipiid one and is said 

 to have traveled a distance of fifteen miles in twci or three houi-s. This flow is 

 l)elieved to have marked the extinction of the volcanic fires beneiith the mountain. 



An early missionary, the Rev. William Ellis, gathered an account of the erup- 

 tion from eye witnesses, who were living in 1823, about twenty years after the 

 flow. His account states: "Stone walls, trees and houses all gave way before 

 it, even large masses of rock of hard ancient lava, when surrounded by the fiery 

 .stream, split into small fragments and, falliu'.; into th^ burning mass, appeare;! 

 to melt again as borne by it down the mountain side. Offerings were presented 



" One of them 800 feet in diameter. 



