228 HAWAIIAN (iS LAN Ds: 
We may therefore believe that its extinction took place since the 
natives arrived at the islands, or within the past two thousand years. 
The natives also point toa certain field of lavas which dates back only 
two or three centuries. 
The crater of Hale-a-kala, according to the measurements of Mr. 
Drayton, is one to two thousand feet deep, and thus surpasses the more 
famous Kilauea. In diameter, also, it is greater, the circuit being 
stated at fifteen miles. A sketch of it is here given, copied and re- 
duced from Mr. Drayton’s drawing, as published in the Narrative of 
the Expedition. The walls are steep, 
but may be descended, with some diffi- 
Mh culty, in any part. On two sides, the 
\Wiom@ = east and north, they are broken down, 
and a gorge commences, one to two 
miles wide, which continues down the 
slopes towards the sea, though gradu- 
ally diminishing in depth. These are 
the grand openings which were made 
NI 
BZ YS 
E 2 a \ at the last summit-eruption, and gave 
Z in SIN Se 
7 \ passage to its lavas. The eastern 
Tt a gorge of the crater is floored with the 
solidified stream, and the surface in 
many parts has all the tortuous ropings 
and plaitings of a recent flood from Mount Loa; while in others there 
are large clinker fields. Over the bottom of the crater, towards the 
commencement of the eastern gorge, sixteen cones were counted by 
Mr. Drayton, besides thirty or more sand hillocks. Dr. Pickering 
remarks, that along the middle of the stream, which is no where less 
than two miles wide, as far down as he examined, (about three miles, ) 
there was a line of small conical hills. Like those of the crater, they 
consisted of scoria or cinders, and varied from one to five hundred feet 
in height. ‘The scoria was generally light, and had a reddish tinge ; 
in other parts it was black, and resembled comminuted pitchstone. 
This great lava stream continued of nearly uniform width, confined by 
its lofty precipitous walls, about half way to the foot of the mountain. 
It then expanded to the southward, as shown in the following sketch : 
the lower part, as seen from the sea, had the form of an immense delta. 
Several ravines in the upper declivities terminate abruptly against 
that part of the stream which stretches south, showing that they were 
CRATER OF HALE-A-KALA. 
