46S 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



The Tenth mornincr, I set out to make the circuit of the craters : 

 and on reaching the Southern lateral pit-crater, found it nearly 

 circular, small, but very deep; while in further correspondence with 

 the state of things at the Great Crater, a lava-stream squeezed up 

 through a crevice to the top of the brink, had thence flowed down- 

 wards and filled the bottom with a lava-lake. — At a little distance 

 Southwest, a small and detached pit-crater was discovered after I 

 left the summit of the mountain. — Beyond the lateral pit-crater, on 

 again approaching the main crater, steam was issuing in quantities 

 from some fissures parallel to the brink ; being the only steam-vents I 

 met with above, outside of the crater. From these same fissures, a 

 current of light cindery pumice-like lava had issued, and soon spread- 

 ing nearly a mile in Avidth had poured down the Southwestern flank 

 of the mountain ; some hillocks of streamy masses of very light scoria 

 were near at hand, also marking the continuation of the Crevice of 

 formation and eruption. — Farther on, the usual ancient lava-streams 

 reappeared, and continued all around the higher or main Western 

 portion of the brink. At the Western extreme, I fell in with some 

 blocks of a compact greenish-grey rock, not lava, whose presence did 

 not seem readily explicable ; afterwards found to be the material of 

 the vertical wall of the crater beneath, to be again mentioned. On 

 looking outwards and part way down the Western declivity, this 

 seemed a little the steepest portion of Mauna Roa. In the distance, 

 three mountain-summits rose out of the sea of clouds, like so many 

 islands out of the ocean : in the North, Mauna Kea, its summit pro- 

 jecting above the horizontal line of vision ; in the West-northwest, 

 Mauna Hualalai 5 and between, the more distant Mauna Haleakala ; 

 the real ocean and islands containing these mountains, being concealed 

 from view, underneath the clouds. The wind during all this time was 

 observed to be precisely Northwest. — Continuing on, the Northern late- 

 ral pit-crater was found to be less distinctly marked than the Southern; 

 being a mere oblong basin-like cavity, where the general including 

 brink was traced Avitli difficulty : though comparatively shallow, it 

 contained a lava-lake ; also a hillock some sixty feet high, of the color 

 of pumice, and probably consisting of scoriaceous fragments. Real 

 pumice, altogether similar to that of the Great Crater, I met with in 

 various places during this day's excursion ; but Peli's hair, or capillary 

 obsidian, was not seen on the summit of the mountain. — I next reached 

 the Northern depression of the summit, and what seemed to be a long 



