1834, JANUARY. ASCENT OF MOUNA KUAH 301 



" At six o'clock the next morning, accompanied by three Islanders 

 and two Americans, I started for the summit of the mountain ; bar. at 

 that hour indicated 20,000 inch., therm. 24, hygr. 20, and a keen West 

 wind was blowing off the mountain, which was felt severely by us all, 

 and especially by the natives, whom it was necessary to protect with 

 additional blankets and great coats. We passed over about five miles 

 of gentle ascent, consisting of large blocks of lava, sand, scoriae, and ashes, 

 of every size, shape, and colour, demonstrating all the gradations of 

 calcination, from the mildest to the most intense. This may be termed 

 the Table Land or Platform, where spring the great vent-holes of the 

 subterranean fire, or numerous volcanos. The general appearance is 

 that of the channel of an immense river, heaped up. In some places 

 the round boulders of lava are so regularly placed, and the sand is so 

 washed in, around them, as to give the appearance of a causeway, while 

 in others, the lava seems to have run like a stream. We commenced 

 the ascent of the Great Peak at nine o'clock, on the N.E. side, over a 

 ridge of tremendously rugged lava, four hundred and seventy feet high, 

 preferring this course to the very steep ascent of the South side, which 

 consists entirely of loose ashes and scoriae, and we gained the summit 

 soon after ten. Though exhausted with fatigue before leaving the Table 

 Land, and much tried with the increasing cold, yet such was my ardent 

 desire to reach the top, that the last portion of the way seemed the easiest. 

 This is the loftiest of the chimneys ; a lengthened ridge of two hundred 

 and twenty-one yards two feet, running nearly straight N.W. To the 

 North, four feet below the extreme summit of the Peak, the barometer 

 was instantly suspended, the cistern being exactly below, and when the 

 mercury had acquired the temperature of the circumambient air, the 

 following register was entered : at 11 hrs. 20 min. ; bar. 18,362 inch. ; 

 air 33 ; hygr. 0" 5. At twelve o'clock the horizon displayed some snowy 

 clouds ; until this period, the view was sublime to the greatest degree, 

 but now every appearance of a mountain-storm came on. The whole 

 of the low S.E. point of the island was throughout the day covered like 

 a vast plain of snow, with clouds. The same thermometer, laid on the 

 bare lava, and exposed to the wind at an angle of 27, expressed at first 

 37, and afterwards, at twelve o'clock, 41, though when held in the hand, 

 exposed to the sun, it did not rise at all. It may well be conjectured 

 that such an immense mass of heating material, combined with the influence 

 of internal fire, and taken in connexion with the insular position of Mouna 

 Kuah, surrounded with an immense mass of water, will have the effect 

 of raising the snow-line considerably ; except on the northern declivity, 

 or where sheltered by large blocks of lava, there was no snow to be seen ; 

 even on the top of the cairn, where the barometer was fixed, there were 

 only a few handsful. One thing struck me as curious, the apparent 

 non-diminution of sound ; not as respects the rapidity of its transmission, 

 which is, of course, subject to a well-known law. Certain it is, that on 

 mountains of inferior elevation, whose summits are clothed with perpetual 

 snow and ice, we find it needful to roar into one another's ears, and the 

 firing of a gun, at a short distance, does not disturb the timid Antelope 



