318 FROM CALIFORNIA TO 



height: the tliree high mountains on Owhyee, as 

 well as those on Mowee, rise proudly into the 

 clouds. I had the best opportunity, as well now, 

 as in the second visit which I paid the Sandwich 

 islands, of measuring their height, for I often saw 

 them free from clouds, and give the following 

 mean result of my measurements : 

 Island of Owhyee, Mouna Roa, 2482,4 toises ; 

 Mouna Kaah, 2180,1 

 Mouna Wororai, 1687,1 

 Island of Mowee, highest peak, 1669,1 

 During the night we fell into the trade-wind, 

 and sailed so close by the island of Tahoorowa, 

 that we saw a number of fires along the shore. On 

 the 26th, near day-break, we were near the island 

 of Ranai ; but the wind died away now so much 

 that we did not descry the S.W. point of the island 

 ofWoahoo till the afternoon, and were five miles 

 distant from it in the evening. As I could not 

 expect to reach the harbour to-day, 1 resolved to 

 remain during the night in the neighbourhood of 

 Wahititi Bay, with which Vancouver has made us 

 sufficiently acquainted, and in which the new har- 

 bour is said to be. They said, in Owhyee, that 

 the current at Woahoo sets so strong to the west, 

 that care must be taken not to get under the wind 

 of the island. But I found it the reverse j for I 

 discovered, at day-break, that the current had car- 

 ried us eight miles to the S.E., though the wind 



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