266 



Ascent of Mauna Loa. 



HAWAIIAN GROUP, OR 



Appearance of the crater. 



and we soon had what we little expected, some- 

 thing to eat, and what the men called a com- 

 fortable breakfast. 



It was very pleasant to find the sick ones reviv- 

 ing, and good-humour and cheerfulness so predo- 

 minant among them that they seemed ready for 

 further exertions. We had now all that was neces- 

 sary to push on to the summit. I left a flag on 

 a rocky peak near by ; and this was afterwards 

 called the Flag Station. 



About eleven o'clock we set out, and were 

 obliged to cross a mass of clinkers, which our 

 guide had hitherto endeavoured to avoid. When, 

 after two hours' laborious walking, we reached 

 the top or terminal crater, it still continued snow- 

 ing in squalls, with a keen south-west wind 

 driving in our faces ; the ground being covered 

 a foot deep with snow, rendered it more danger- 

 ous and irksome to pass over such loose and de- 

 tached masses. 



From intelligence that had been brought me by 

 the gentlemen who had gone before and taken a 

 hasty look into the crater, it was thought that the 

 descent into it would prove easy, and that I might 

 encamp on its floor ; but I found after travelling a 

 long distance over the rugged surface, that it was 

 impossible to succeed in making a descent. I was, 

 therefore, compelled to return, and choose the 

 smoothest place for our encampment I could 

 find. It was after four o'clock, and but little 

 time was left for the men to return. As soon as 

 they had pitched the tent, within about sixty feet 

 of the ledge of the crater, using large blocks of 

 lava to confine its cords, I sent them off under 

 charge of the guide to the Flag Station, and re- 

 mained with my servants only. 



By six o'clock I thought that we had made our- 

 selves comfortable for the night, and that the storm 

 had so far moderated that it would not trouble us ; 

 but a short hour proved the contrary. Our fire 

 was dispersed, candles blown out, and the tent 

 rocking and flapping as if it would go to pieces, or 

 be torn asunder from its fastenings, and disappear 

 before the howling blast. I now felt that what we 

 had passed through on the previous night was 

 comfort in comparison to this. The tent, how- 

 ever, continued to stand, although it had many 

 holes torn in it, and the ridge-pole had chafed 

 through its top. 



It was truly refreshing, after the night we had 

 passed, to see the sun rising clear. It seemed 

 quite small, and was much affected by horizontal 

 refraction, as it appeared above the sea, forming a 

 long horizontal ellipse of two and a half diameters, 

 first enlarging on one side and then on another. 

 After it had reached the height of two diameters 

 above the horizon, the ellipse gradually inclined on 

 the right, and in a few moments afterwards its 

 longer axis became vertical, and it then enlarged 

 at the bottom, somewhat in the form of an egg. 



My servants fruitlessly attempted to make a fire; 

 after they had exhausted all their matches without 

 success, we each took turns to ignite a stick after 

 the native fashion, but with no more success ; the 

 nearest approximation to it was plenty of smoke. 

 After making many vain attempts, and having had 

 but little sleep, we took to our blankets again, to 

 await the coming of some of the party from below. 



At about eleven o'clock on the 23rd, Drs. Judd 

 and Pickering pulled open the tent, and found us 



all three wrapped up in our blankets. They had 

 passed the night at the Flag Station. 



The news Dr. Judd brought was far from en- 

 couraging, nearly all the natives had deserted the 

 boxes; many of them had not even reached the 

 Recruiting Station, Ragsdale and his forty goats 

 had not arrived; nor were there any tidings of the 

 party from the ship. The natives hearing of our 

 distresses, and probably exaggerating them, had 

 refused to furnish any thing unless at exorbitant 

 prices. The officers had very properly rejected 

 the whole that was offered; for, although our al- 

 lowance was small, we trusted that the provisions 

 from the ship would arrive in a day or two at 

 farthest. 



After getting a fire lighted, and something to 

 eat, Drs. Judd, Pickering, and myself, set out to 

 reconnoitre the crater for a more suitable place in 

 which to establish the tents; but, after much search, 

 we found none that offered so many facilities as 

 that I had accidentally chosen the first night. Dr. 

 Pickering parted from us, and was the first to make 

 a descent into the crater. 



Nothing can exceed the devastation of the moun- 

 tain : the whole area of it is one mass of lava, that 

 has at one time been thrown out in a fluid state 

 from its terminal crater. There is no sand or other 

 rock; nothing but lava, on whichever side the eye 

 is turned. To appearance it is of different ages, 

 some of very ancient date, though as yet not de- 

 composed, and the alternations of heat and cold, 

 with rain and snow, seem to have united in vain for 

 its destruction. In some places, it is quite smooth, 

 or similar to what has already been described as 

 the pahoihoi, or " satin stream ;" again, it appears 

 in the form of clinkers, which are seldom found in 

 heaps, but lie extended in beds for miles in length, 

 sometimes a mile wide, and occasionally raised 

 from ten to twenty feet above the surface of the 

 surrounding lava. 



The place where these clinkers appear to me to 

 have been formed is in the crater itself; there they 

 have been broken up by contending forces, and 

 afterwards ejected with the more fluid lava, and 

 borne upon its surface down the mountain side, 

 until they became arrested in their course by the 

 accumulating weight, or stopped by the excessive 

 friction that the mass had to overcome. In this 

 way the beds, or rather streams, of them might have 

 been formed, which would accumulate for miles, 

 and continue to increase as the crater discharged 

 this description of scoria. What strengthened my 

 opinion in this respect was, that there were, appa- 

 rently, streams of pahoihoi coming out from under- 

 neath the masses of clinkers wherever they had 

 stopped. 



This day we received news of the arrival of 

 Lieutenant Alden at the Recruiting Station, with 

 the detachment from the ship; but he had brought 

 no provisions, and none had yet reached the sta- 

 tion. This arrival, therefore, instead of supplying 

 our wants rather increased them. 



The small transit was brought up this day, and, 

 to add to my vexations, on opening it I found the 

 level broken. I did not stop to inquire by what 

 accident this had happened, but within ten minutes 

 despatched an order to the ship for another, which 

 was distant sixty miles. 



In the evening, at 6 P.M., the thermometer stood 

 at 29, and during the night it fell to 22. 



