228 JVotice of Hawaii, [Owyhee,) and its Volcanic Regions, &/-c. 



Art. III. — Havjaii, (Owyhee,) and its Volcanic Regions and Pro- 

 ductions; with some notices of the moral and civil progress of its 

 inhabitants, omd of those of Oahu. 



1. JVotices from a letter addreessed to the Editor. 



In former volumes of this Journal, we have repeatedly mentioned 

 this interesting region, of past and present volcanic action. A letter 

 received some months since, dated Byron's Bay, October 28, 1829, 

 by the Editor, from Mr. Joseph Goodrich, (to whom we have been 

 often indebted for valuable information,) mentions that in July, 1829, 

 he had again visited Kirauea* and that he was surprised to see how 

 much it had filled up since his last visit, the crater not being then so 

 deep by six hundred feet as at the time of his first visit. f This is 

 of course attributable to the subterranean effort to eject the melted 

 matter, which has again congealed at the bottom of the crater and 

 thus accumulated. 



Mr. Goodrich has forwarded a box of the lava, and he states that 

 • " all the specimens were taken either hot or warm from the bottom of 

 the crater; the light pumice stones were from the top of the crater,, 

 or the sunken plain, as Mr. Ellis calls it." 



The volcanic specimens from Hawaii are singularly marked by 

 the strong impress of fire. It would be impossible to doubt their ig- 

 neous origin, even if one knew nothing of their history. Black is 

 their prevailing color, but some are red or deep brown, and occa- 

 sionally they are mottled and party colored, with various hues. 



They pass, by almost imperceptible gradations, from compact au- 

 gitic lava, heavy and almost without pores, to that which is in the 

 highest degree vesicular and inflated. In general, they have a high 

 vitreous lustre, attended frequently by brilliant hues of uncommon 

 variety and beauty, iris-colored, columbine, of a steel tarnish, &c. 

 Frequently they assume the characters of perfect volcanic glass. 



As it appears decidedly,, from facts quoted in Vol. XI, that the 

 entire island is of volcanic origin, it is interesting to learn that there 

 are rocks of basalt, ("answering very nearly to the description of the 

 Giant's Causeway in the north of Ireland.") "Many of the prisms 

 are six sided, broken off even with the surrounding rocks ; others 



* Then evidently in tranquillity, as ladies and little children were of the party. 

 i See Vol. XI. 



