1834, JANUARY. ARRIVAL AT KAPUPALA 309 



healtHy ^ sward, and studded here and there with Maurarii Trees in full 

 blossom, a beautiful tree, much resembling the English Laburnum. As 

 I withdrew from the volcano in order to obtain a good general view of 

 the country lying South and betwixt me and the sea, I ascertained the 

 western ridge or verge of the volcano to be decidedly the most elevated 

 of the table land : and a narrow valley lies to the West of it. A low 

 ridge runs from the mountain, southward, to the sea, terminating at 

 the South end, in a number of craters, of various form and extent. West 

 of this low ridge between the gentle ascent of grassy ground on Mouna 

 Eoa there is a space of five to seven miles in breadth to the Grand Dis- 

 charge from the Great Volcano, where it falls into the ocean at Kapupala. 

 The present aspect of the crater leads me to think that there has been 

 no overflowing of the lava for years : the discharge is evidently from the 

 subterranean vaults below. In 1822, the Islanders say there was a great 

 discharge in this direction. Among the grassy undulating ground are 

 numerous caves, some of great magnitude, from forty to sixty-five feet 

 high, and from thirty to forty feet broad, many of them of great length 

 like gigantic arches, and very rugged. These generally run at right angles 

 with the dome of Mouna Roa and the sea. Some of these natural tunnels 

 may be traced for several miles in length, with occasional holes of different 

 sizes in the roofs, screened sometimes with an overgrowth of large Trees 

 and Ferns, which renders walking highly dangerous. At other places, 

 the tops of the vaults have fallen in for the space of one hundred or even 

 three hundred yards, an occurrence which is attributable to the violent 

 earthquakes that sometimes visit this district, and which, as may be 

 readily imagined from the number of these tunnels, is not well suppHed 

 with water. The inhabitants convert these caverns to use in various 

 ways ; employing them occasionally as permanent dwelUngs, but more 

 frequently as cool retreats where they carry on the process of making 

 native cloth from the bark of the Mulberry Tree, or where they fabricate 

 and shelter their canoes from the violent rays of the sun. They are also 

 used for goat-folds and pig-styes, and the fallen-in places, where there 

 is a greater depth of decomposed vegetable matter, are frequently planted 

 with Tobacco, Indian Corn, Melons, and other choice plants. At a distance 

 of ten miles North of Kapupala, and near the edge of the path, are som 

 fine caverns, above sixty feet deep. The water, dropping from the top 

 of the vault, collected into small pools below, indicated a temperature 

 of 50°, the air of the cave itself 51°, while in the shade on the outside 

 the thermometer stood at 82°. The interiors of the moist caverns are 

 of a most beautiful appearance ; not only from the singularity of their 

 structure, but because they are delightfully fringed with Ferns, Mosses, 

 and Jungermanniae, thus holding out to the Botanist a most inviting 

 retreat from the overpowering rays of a tropical sun. 



" Arrived at Kapupala, at three p.m., I found that the chief or head 

 man had prepared a house for me, a nice and clean dwelling, with abund- 

 ance of fijie mats, &c., but as near it there stood several large canoes 

 filled with water, containing Mulberry Bark in a state of fermentation, 

 1 Probably an errror for ' heathy ' or ' heathery.' — Ed. 



