GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF HAWAII. 133 



and many hogs thrown alive into the stream to appease the anger of the gods, 

 by whom they supposed it was directed, to stop its devastating course. All 

 seemed unavailing, until one day the king Kamehameha went, attended by a 

 large retinue of chief's and priests, and, as the most valuable offering he could 

 make, cut off a part of his own hair, which was always considered sacred, and 

 threw it into the torrent. A day or two after the lava ceased to flow; the gods, 

 it was thought, were satisfied." 



The IMouxtaix of Puu Wa.vw.va. 



On the north slope of Ilualalai near its base and in jilain view from Ka- 

 waihae Bay, is a curious fluted mountain called Puu Waawaa." Niunerous shal- 

 low ravines radiate from its summit in all directions, clearly the work of rain. 

 Its curious form is of interest to the traveler, but it has been seldom visited 

 by scientists. It remained for Dr. Whitman Cross of the U. S Geological 

 Survey to discover that the terrace bench at this point contains lavas rich in 

 alkali feldspar, a discovery of importance since formally only basalt and allied 

 rocks have been credited to the islands. The position of these alkali lavas 

 indicate the pos.sibility of an older and extensive eruption forming an island 

 beneath the later basaltic flows of the great mountains of Hawaii that rest upon 

 the older island base. 



Mauna L(ia. 



An examination of the map of IIa\vaii will show ilauna Loa, the second largest 

 active island volcano in the world, as occupying the entire southern half of the 

 island, being seventy-four by fifty-three miles in its base dimensions at sea level. 

 It terminates in the great active crater, ]\Iokuaweow^eo, which is three and three- 

 cjuarters miles i" long by one and three-(iuarters miles in width, with an area of 

 3.70 miles." This splendid caldera, the most perfectly formed crater in the 

 islands, is enclosed in walls from five hundred to one tho\isand feet in height. 

 Like its neighbor on the north, the top of iMauna Loa is a plateau, its high- 

 est point being 13,675 feet above the sea, or more than 30,000 feet above the 

 floor of the ocean about the group. From the central jxiint the slopes of the 

 mountain radiate at a fairly uniform angle in all directions. 



Rough lava Hows of aa and pahoehoe which overlap each other extend from 

 near the sununit of the sea-shore like the spokes in a wagon wheel. They show 

 clearly the wa\' the vast mountain has been slowly built up through countless 

 ages. Owing to the altitude and the amount of rough lava on its slopes the 

 ascent of Mauna Loa is an exceedingly difficult, and, in many respects, a dan- 

 gerous task. The first recorded ascent was that made by the famous traveler, 

 John Ledyard, in 1770, who visited Hawaii as a member of Captain Cook's 

 party on his last voyage. He made fairly accurate, though necessarily frag- 

 mentary, record of the general features of the mountain. 



The second attempt to explore IMauna Loa was at the time of Vancouver's 



"3824 feet elev.-,ti.>n. " Dimersiors in feet; 19,500 by 9.200 feet. "2370 acres. 



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