GEOLOGY AND TOi'OGKAPll Y OF llAWAii. 133 



and luaiiy hogs thrown alive iiilo the stream lo a|)i)ease the anger ol" the iiods, 

 by whom they supposed it was directed, to stop its devastating course. All 

 seemed unavailing, until one day the king Kamehameha went, attended by a 

 large retinue of chiefs and priests, and. as the most valuable offering he could 

 make, cut off a part of his own hair, which was always considered sacred, and 

 threw it into the torrent. A da\' or two aftei- the lava ceased to flow; the gods, 

 it was thought, were satisfied." 



The Mountain of Puu W.vawaa. 



On the north slope of llualalai near its base and in plain view from Iva- 

 waihae Bay, is a curious fluted mountain called Puu Waawaa." Numerous shal- 

 low ravines radiate from its summit in all directions, clearly the woric of rain. 

 Its curious form is of interest to the traveler, but it has been seldom visited 

 by scientists. It remained for Dr. Whitman Cross of the V. S. Geological 

 Survey to discover that the terrace bench at this point contains lavas i-icli in 

 alkali feldspar, a discovery of importance since formally only basalt and allied 

 rocks have been credited to the islands. The position of these alkali lavas 

 indicate the possibility of an older and extensive eruption forming an island 

 beneath the later basaltic flows of the great mountains of Hawaii that rest ui)on 

 the older island base. 



Mauna Loa. 



An examination of the map of Hav.aii will show Mauna Loa. the second largest 

 active island volcano in the world, as occupying the entire southern half of the 

 island, being seventy-four by fifty-three miles in its base dimensions at sea level. 

 It terminates in the great active crater, Mokuaweoweo, which is three and three- 

 quarters miles ^"^ long by one and three-quarters miles in width, with an area of 

 3.70 miles. ^^ This splendid caldera, the most perfectly formed crater in the 

 islands, is enclosed in w^alls from five hundred to one thousand feet in heii^ht. 

 Like its neighbor on the north, the top of Mauna Loa is a plateau, its high- 

 est point being 13,675 feet above the sea, or more than 30, ()()() feet above the 

 floor of the ocean about the group. From the central point the slopes of the 

 mountain radiate at a fairly uniform angle in all directions. 



Eough lava flows of aa and pahoehoe w^hich overlap (>ach other extend from 

 near the summit of the sea-shore like the spokes in a wagon wheel. They show 

 clearly the way the vast mountain has been slowly bnilt up through eonntless 

 ages. Owdng to the altitude and the amount of rough lava on its slo])es the 

 ascent of Mauna Loa is an exceedingly difficult, and. in many respects, a dan- 

 gerous task. The first recorded ascent was that made by the famons traveler, 

 John Ledyard, in 1779, who visited Hawaii as a member of ('ai)tain Gook's 

 party on his last voyage. He made fairly accurate, though nei-ess.ii'ily fi-air- 

 mentary, record of the general features of the mountain. 



The second attempt to explore ]\launa Loa was at the lime of Vancouver's 



» 3824 feet elevation. "' l)iiiieiisi()ii.s in feet: 19,r)0() l.y 9,200 feet. "2370 acres. 



11 



