M A U N A L O A. 



155 



southwest; it was very cold, and the only way we had of keeping 

 warm was to wrap ourselves up with blankets and furs. We had just 

 wood enough to heat a little chocolate. 



The small instruments having arrived, I began some of the obser- 

 vations. 



While the rest were employed in making our tents as tight as 

 possible, in the one Dr. Judd and myself occupied, we discovered a 

 great deposit of moisture, which, on examination, was found to be 

 caused by steam issuing through a crack in the lava. On placing 

 a thermometer in it, it rose to 68°. The tent was forty feet from 

 the edge of the precipice of the crater, and it was not surprising 

 that the steam should find its way up from the fires beneath. As 

 it somewhat annoyed us, we pounded and filled the seam full of 

 broken pieces of lava. This circumstance led to the discovery of a 

 small piece of moss, the only living thing, either animal or vegetable, 

 that was found within six miles distance, or within four thousand 

 feet of the height of the terminal crater. This moss was here 

 nourished by the steam that escaped, which supplied it with warmth 

 and moisture. 



This day we made many experiments on the temperature of boiling 

 water : the mean of the observations gave the boiling temperature at 

 188°, being five hundred and sixty feet to each degree of temperature. 

 At the volcano of Kilauea, I had found it less than five hundred and 

 fifty feet to each degree ; while the result of careful experiments at the 

 Sunday Station, gave five hundred and fifty-five feet to the degree, 

 and at the Recruiting Station, five hundred and fifty-eight feet. 



We also employed ourselves in build- 

 ing a high stone wall around a space 

 large enough to contain the houses and 

 tents, when they should all arrive, hav- 

 ing found the necessity of it to protect 

 ourselves from the violent winds. Be- 

 sides this, each tent was to be sur- 

 rounded by a separate wall, up as high 

 as the eaves, when completed. The 

 plan was as exhibited in the annexed 

 wood-cut. 



^55ffsO^B«*^jS!BE?^ESiaS [^SSSKjgj^ ii 



1. Pendulum -house. 2. Captain Wilkes's tent. 3. Officers' tent. 4, 5 and 6. Men's quarters. 7. 

 Magnetic house. 8. Observatory. 9. Store-house. 10. Wood-house. 11. Kitchen 12. Thermometer 

 and barometer house. 13. Entrance. 



