346 Real and supposed effects of igneous action. 



the cocoanut shells, are some of the more delicate sort ; lam 

 unable to say of what kind they are, not having time and 

 means for trying them by experiment. The white, or light 

 colored ones are from the bottom of the crater, together with 

 the capillary volcanic glass ; some of the cocoanut shells con- 

 tain what i suppose to be pumice stone, (although they much 

 more resemble a sponge,) they are much lighter than any of 

 the kind that I have heretofore seen. These light materials 

 are very abundant about the crater, being driven about by 

 the winds in every direction. The remainder of the miner- 

 als are almost all from the inside of the crater, some from the 

 bottom ; others from the sides and from various places with- 

 in the crater. Such as they are, I forward them for your in- 

 spection, and I should like to receive your remarks upon 

 them. Should any of them be worth notice, I should be hap- 

 py to forward more hereafter. If there are any researches that 

 jou would like have made, (as you will think of many things 

 that do not occur to me) be so kind as to inform me what they 

 are, and I will attend to them with pleasure, and send you 

 the result by the first opportunity. 



The second letter is dated Oahu, June 12, 1828. Mr. 

 Goodrich, speaking of the account which was formerly pub- 

 lished, of the volcanic character of the Island of Hawaii, says : 

 " There is nothing incorrect in the account of these Islands 

 in the American Journal, except in the spelhng of a very few 

 words, such as names of places, &c. I gave you in my let- 

 ter of April 25, 1825, a short account of my tour through 

 the interior of the island, from Kailua to the volcano, and from 

 thence to Byron's Bay. The interior of the Island presents 

 to the traveller the same dreary mass of lava, that is to be 

 seen in most parts of the island. Mouna Roa appears to be 

 but one huge pile of lava, estimated at about eighteen thou- 

 sand feet high. In some places I have observed the frag- 

 ments of lava forming something "resembling the sandstone 

 of the coarsest kind ; the particles varying in size from that 

 of fine sand to that of massy rocks, the angles of which ap- 

 pear to have been worn off by attrition. Some of the strata 

 of lava are horizontal ; others vary in their position from that 

 to an elevation of eighty degrees. They are in every shape 

 that one can imagine possible ; nor can I adequately des- 

 cribe the appearance of lava, so that you can form any cor- 

 rect apprehensions of the picture it presents. The horizon- 



