200 Miscellanies. 



never seen any thing of the kind, cannot form any adequate idea of 

 the extreme roughness of those currents of lava; and even those 

 who have seen them, and who have not seen the process of forma- 

 tion, (of which I have happened to be an eye witness, and am to 

 describe it hereafter,) cannot imagine how it was ever formed into 

 such rude, rough, ragged and brolcen masses. 



In ascending Mauna Kea, nothing occurred very materially differ- 

 ent from what I have heretofore mentioned ; a severe head ache, 

 affecting the natives as well as myself, with sickness at the stomach 

 and vomiting of bilious matter, usually attends me in those lofty regions. 



The minerals that I brought down consist, as you will perceive, 

 of fragments of granite rock, imbedded in lava. There is one spe- 

 cimen, wrapped in white kapa, with black figures, and all the speci- 

 mens from the summit of the mountain are wrapped in the same 

 kind of kapa. The specimens of compact lava, (much resembling 

 hornstone,) are the material of the native adze, such aS they were 

 accustomed to use before they were acquainted with iron ; those 

 which I send, are now in their rude state, as taken from the quarry, 

 in a cave near the summit, where they were roughed out and after- 

 wards taken down among the inhabitants for sale. No persons ever 

 lived within twenty or thirty miles of the place where they were 

 roughed out. 



I saw some specimens of granite a foot or more in diameter ; 

 the cohesion was, in general, quite feeble, doubtless the effect of 

 volcanic fire, of which there are evident marks on almost every 

 rock on the island. 



In my last journey up the mountain, I found the pond or lake of 

 water, of which I had frequently been informed. It is situated just 

 at the foot of some of the highest peaks of the mountain, on the 

 south east side, probably not far from a thousand feet from the top. 

 The lake is seventy five rods in circumference, or twenty five in 

 diameter; it was about one half frozen over, when I visited it in 

 December ; the ice was sufficiently firm to bear sliding upon ; the 

 natives, however, were not much inclined to make the trial, for be- 

 ing barefoot and half clothed, they were indisposed to move unless 

 we were on our way downward. The water appeared to be very 

 deep, and none was discharged from it when I was there; although 

 there appears to be an outlet when the snow melts. There not be- 

 ing much snow at the time of my visit, I could not discover that the 

 lake is fed by springs, or even snow, for the. rocks, cinders and sco- 

 ria, were all dry about it. 



