LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



TO EDWARD C. HERRICK 



Mauna Loa 



"SANDWICH ISLANDS, HONOLULU, OAHU, Nov. 30, 1840. 



" Our late arrival at these islands, late in consequence 

 of a three months' delay among the Feejees, will lengthen 

 our cruise nearly a year. The coming summer is to be 

 spent, as we now expect, on the northwest coast, and we 

 are just on the point of leaving in the Peacock on a win- 

 ter's cruise to pass away the intervening time. It is 

 rumored that we shall go to the islands lying near the 

 equator to the southward and westward, the Kingsmill 

 group, Ascension Island, etc. ; the Vincennes remaining 

 here. 



" Captain Wilkes will shortly sail for Hilo, on Hawaii. 

 He intends taking his pendulums and other instruments 

 to the summit of Mount Loa, about 14,000 feet high, 

 where he will spend a fortnight or more in his observa- 

 tions. The season at that altitude will be unpleasant 

 from cold winds and snow ; but they will probably pro- 

 vide well against these inconveniences. Two or three 

 hundred natives will be employed in carrying up the 

 instruments, the portable houses to contain them, etc., 

 and arrangements are already made for them to start 

 immediately on the arrival of the vessel. We of the 

 Peacock have been favored with a jaunt of ten days 

 on Hawaii, in which time we travelled from Kealakeakua 

 Bay (the scene of Cook's death) across to Byron's Bay. 

 I took the southern route, passed over about 170 miles, 

 all but 30 on foot. I was astonished with the tameness 

 of the lofty Mauna Loa. I have never seen a mountain 

 one-third its height so utterly destitute of all sublimity 

 or grandeur as this mountain appeared to us, walking along 

 at its foot. It is an evenly rounded elevation, without 

 one valley or gorge, one peak or ridge, to diversify its 

 surface. I can compare its shape to nothing better than 

 a saucer turned upside down. There are some gullies 

 and slightly elevated ridges, which the traveller occasion- 

 ally meets, but they do not appear in the distant prospect. 

 Its slopes are so even and gradual that the top is much 

 farther off than appears to the observer, and this accounts 

 for his disappointment. The volcano, which you know 



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