LIFELONG INTEREST IN VOLCANOES 



mento (now called Marysville Butte) during an overland 

 trip from Vancouver to San Francisco; and, finally, in 

 1860, by a second visit to Vesuvius, and in 1887 a second 

 to the Hawaiian Islands." 



The book on Volcanoes is really, as its fuller title in- 

 dicates, a study of their characteristics in the light of 

 facts and principles ascertained in the Hawaiian Islands. 

 The writer particularly advocated the comparison of 

 Hawaii with Vesuvius and Etna. 



" Hardly three weeks distant from Europe and not two 

 from New York, with much to be seen on the way and 

 tropical islands growing corals and tree-ferns at the end, 

 the route should be a common one with tourists. The 

 magnitude and easy access of the great craters; their 

 proximity, while nearly ten thousand feet apart in alti- 

 tude ; their strange unlikeness in ordinary action, although 

 alike in features and lavas; their unsympathizing inde- 

 pendence ; their usually quiet way of sending forth lava- 

 streams twenty and thirty miles long, make them a 

 peculiarly instructive field for the student of volcanic 

 science, as well as an attractive one for the lover of the 

 marvellous. Even the lavas, although nothing but basalt, 

 have afforded much that is new to science." 



Within a decade of the time when these words were 

 written, Hawaii became a part of the United States, and 

 this change of relations will doubtless increase the atten- 

 tion bestowed upon the island group by American volcan- 

 ists, and Dana's book will become a landmark in Hawaiian 

 geology. 



His earlier visit to Hawaii has already been men- 

 tioned. Almost half a century later he was led to think 

 of another visit because during the few months previous 

 he had been receiving numerous documents from some of 

 the gentlemen on the islands (including Mr. Alexander), 

 describing the progress of the survey, the condition of 

 the volcanoes, etc. He published a paper on " Volcanic 



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