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228 Notice of Hawaii, (Owyhee,) and its Volcanic Regions, &c. 
Arr. III.—Hawaii, (Owyhee,) and its Volcanic Regions and Pro- 
_ductions; with some notiées of the moral and civil pineren ot us 
inhabitants, and of those of Oahu. 
1. Notices from a letter nt to the Editor. 
In former volumes of this Journal, we hae repeatedly mentioned 
this interesting region, of past and present volcanic action. A letter 
eceived some months since, dated Byron’s Bay, October 28, 1829, 
es the Editor, from Mr. Joseph Goodrich, (to whom we have been 
often indebted for valuable information,) mentions’ that in July, 1829, 
he had again visited Kirauea* and that he was surprised to see how. 
much it had filled up since bis last visit, the crater not being then so 
deep by six hundred feet as at the time of his first visit.-f This 's 
of course attributable to the subterranean effort to eject the melted 
matter, which has again congealed, at the bottom of the crater. and 
thus accumulated. » | 
Mr. Goodrich he Vicioaicked a box of the lava, me he states that 
“all the specimens were taken either hot or warm from the bottom of 
the crater; the light pumice stones were from the top of me crater; 
or the sunken plain, as Mr. Ellis calls it.” 
~The volcanic specimens from Hawaii are singularly alia by 
the strong impress. of fire. It would be impossible to doubt. their ig- 
neous origin, even if one- knew nothing of their history. Black is 
their prevailing color, but some. are red or deep brown, and occa 
sionally they are mottled and party colored, with various hues. 
They pass, by almost imperceptible gradations, from compact aur 
gitic lava, heavy and almost without. pores, to that which is in the 
highest degree vesicular and inflated.’ In general, they have @ high 
vitreous lustre, attended frequently by brilliant hues of uncommon | 
variety-and beauty, iris-colored, columbine, of a steel tarnish, & 
Frequently they assume the characters of perfect volcanic glass. 
As it appears decidedly, from facts quoted in Vol. Xi, that the 
entire island is of volcanic origin, it is interesting to learn that there 
are rocks of basalt, (“answering very nearly to the description of the 
Giant’s Causeway in the north of Ireland.”) ‘Many of the prisms 
are six sided, broken off even with the surrounding rocks ; others | 
Se cel t 
* Then a in tranquillity, as ladies and little children were of the party: | 
i See Vol 
