HA W All AN G TUBE B OK. 45 



mounting, the horses are fastened, to rest, and nibble 

 the 6canty herbage, while yon walk by a nondescript 

 path, abounding with diabolical fragments of lava and 

 atrocious jumping off places, for some distance along 

 the crater's jagged edge, to an elevated spur command- 

 ing the whole panorama below. 



What a grand prospect ! Standing on this lofty sum- 

 mit, ten thousand feet above the sea, a sight that beg- 

 gars description bursts on the unprepared vision. Wea- 

 riness is forgotten ; language fails ; silence reigns. 



Pour thousand feet above the level of the clouds that 

 float around the mountain's brow like banks of snow ; 

 the summit possesing a horizon two hundred miles in 

 diameter ; an atmosphere clear even to rarefaction : no 

 impeding obstacle to extended vision in any direction 

 — the observer is spell-bound. 



To the westward are the mountains of West Maui, 

 with the horizon unbroken above them ; beyond them is 

 Molokai ; far to the northwest lies the cloud-capped 

 Island of Oahu, and on very clear days may be seen the 

 peaks of Kauai two hundred and fifty miles distant. La- 

 nai stands gleaming opposite distant Lahaina. Kahoo- 

 lawe is a mere rock, and Molokini a speck at your feet. 

 Southeast, in the far-off sky, are the blue summits 

 of the three giant mountains of Hawaii, Mauna Kea 

 and Hualalai, with the magnificent dome of Mauna Loa. 

 Everywhere beyond, around and abroad is the blue 

 ocean, stretchiug upward till the horizon seems suspend- 

 ed midway between the zenith and the base of the moun- 

 tains, — a sight which once seen can never be forgotten. 



Below, at a distance of more than two thousand feet, 

 is a crater unequaled in size in the world ; quiescent for 



