1834, JANUARY. JOURNEY TO MOUNA ROA 305 



as snow, was engaged in feeding two favourite cats with fish. My little 

 terrier disputed the fare with them, to the no small annoyance of their 

 mistress. A well-looking young female amused me with singing, while 

 she was engaged in the process of cooking a dog on heated stones. I 

 also observed a handsome young man, whose very strong stiff black hair 

 was allowed to grow to a great length on the top of his head, while it 

 was cut close over the ears, and falling down on the back of his head and 

 neck, had all the appearance of a Roman helmet. 



" January the 23rd. This morning the old lady was engaged in feeding 

 a dog with fox-like ears, instead of her cats. She compelled the poor 

 animal to swallow Poe, by cramming it into his mouth, and what he put 

 out at the sides, she took up and ate herself ; this she did, as she informed 

 me, by way of fattening the dog for food. A little while before day- 

 break my host went to the door of the lodge, and after calling over some 

 extraordinary words which would seem to set orthography at defiance, 

 a loud grunt in response from under the thick shade of some adjoining 

 Tree-Ferns, was followed by the appearance of a fine large black pig, 

 which coming at his master's call, was forthwith caught and killed for 

 the use of myself and my attendants. The meat was cooked on heated 

 stones, and three men were kindly sent to carry it to the volcano, a distance 

 of twenty-three miles, tied up in the large leaves of Banana and Ti-tree. 

 The morning was deliciously cool and clear, with a light breeze. Immedi- 

 ately on passing through a narrow belt of wood, where the timber was 

 large, and its trunks matted with parasitic Ferns, I arrived at a tract of 

 ground, over which there was but a scanty covering of soil above the 

 lava, interspersed with low bushes and Ferns. Here I beheld one of 

 the grandest scenes imaginable ; Mouna Roa reared his bold front, 

 covered with snow, far above the region of verdure, while Mouna Kuan 

 was similarly clothed, to the timber region on the South side, while the 

 summit was cleared of the snow that had fallen on the nights of the 12th 

 and two following days. The district of Hido, ' Byron's Bay,' which I 

 had quitted the previous day, presented, from its great moisture, a truly 

 lovely appearance, contrasting in a striking manner with the country 

 where I then stood, and which extended to the sea, whose surface bore 

 evident signs of having been repeatedly ravaged by volcanic fires. In 

 the distance, to the South- West, the dense black cloud which overhangs 

 the great volcano, attests, amid the otherwise unsullied purity of the 

 sky, the mighty operations at present going on in that immense laboratory. 

 The lava, throughout the whole district, appeared to be of every colour 

 and shape, compact, bluish and black, porous or vesicular, heavy and 

 light. In some places it lies in regular lines and masses, resembling 

 narrow horizontal basaltic columns ; in others, in tortuous forms, or 

 gathered into rugged humps of small elevation ; while, scattered over 

 the whole plain, are numerous extinct, abrupt, generally circular craters, 

 varying in height from one hundred to three hundred feet, and with 

 about an equal diameter at their tops. At the distance of five miles 

 from the volcano, the country is more rugged, the fissures in the ground 

 being both larger and more numerous, and the whole tract covered with 



