0?i the Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. 187 



sketches ; a pocket compass ; a measuring-tape, of fifty feet or 

 more ; a telescope ; a camera lucida ; a box of colours. 



The best maps should always be sought for : — and, the true 

 ceconomy to the traveller being that which saves time, it is 

 best to mark, or even to colour the map, in the field. Notes 

 inserted on imperfect maps, or deduced afterwards from me- 

 moranda, are less authentic; and the process is frequently 

 neglected. 



Portable barometers, with detached thermometers, are de- 

 sirable : and the best instruments are ultimately the cheapest. 

 But, unfortunately, barometers of every construction are very 

 easily damaged or deranged. — Minute accuracy, however, in 

 the determination of heights, though very interesting to phy- 

 sical geography, is comparatively of little importance to the 

 geologist. 



If the collector be a surveyor, he will know best to what 

 purposes a pocket sextant, or a small theodolite, is applicable: 

 — the measurement of distances, — of heights, — and of the in- 

 clination of strata, &c. 



XXVIII. Notice of the volcanic Character of the Island of 

 Hawaii, in a Letter to Professor Silliman, and of various 

 Facts connected with late Observations of the Christian Mis- 

 sionaries in that Country, absiractedfrom a Journal of a Tour 

 around Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Islands *. 



HPHE island of Owhyhee, now called Hawaii, has long been 

 ■*■ famous as the scene of the death of the celebrated English 

 navigator Captain James Cook. 



The atrocity of that scene, although extenuated by some 

 circumstances of provocation, contributed to stamp the cha- 

 racter of the natives with the charge of extreme barbarity ; a 

 charge which seems, however, to have had no peculiar foun- 

 dation; the character of the Owhyheans appearing to be sub- 

 stantially the same with that of all the inhabitants of the Poly- 

 nesian groups. 



However this fact may have been, an effort was thought 

 worth making to elevate this interesting people to the condi- 

 tion of civilized and Christian men. It is well known, that in 

 October 1819, a mission sailed from Boston for the Sandwich 

 Islands, where they arrived in April 1820; and that an addi- 

 tional number of missionaries sailed from New- Haven f in 

 November 1822, and arrived in April 1823. 



Soon 



* From Silliman's Journal, vol. xi. p. 1. 



f Among these missionaries was -Mr. Joseph Goodrich, who, while a 



2 A 2 member 



