766 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
the desert appearance of the latter. The journey to Kilauea is a tedious and monotonous 
ride, the ascent being so gradual that it is hardly perceived. The track leads first through 
a fine belt of forest near the shore, and then emerges on a weary expanse of open 
country, entirely devoid of any fine trees, and mostly covered with a scanty, low moor- 
land-looking growth with Screw Pine trees. The track is scarcely marked on the bare 
surfaces of the lava flows, which look almost as fresh as if the lava had only set the day 
before. These surfaces are covered in every direction by ropy projections, curved lines 
of flow, and small rounded ledges, showing where one part of the flow has run over 
another. The whole looks as if a vast quantity of melted pitch had been suddenly 
turned out of a mighty pot and allowed to run and set hard. 
During the ascent a. globular cloud was seen hanging in the air in the distance, 
Fig. 2G7. — Manna Kea, Hawaii, as seen from tlie Half-Way House, on the road to the Crater of Kilauea. 
which, as the guide explained, hung over the summit of Mauna Loa itself. The fact, 
however, was not in any way apparent, for the gradient was so slight that there was no 
appearance of any mountain at all. As night fell this cloud perpetually re-formed by 
condensation, and was lighted up by a brilliant orange glow reflected from the molten 
lava in the great terminal crater, and the general effect was just as if a fire were raging 
in the forest in the distance. 
With the evening appeared an Owl, probably Asio brachyotus, the Short-eared Owl of 
England. A Duck also rose from a small marsh, probably Anas wyvilliana, which is 
peculiar to the Hawaiian group, and was named by Dr. Sclater after Sir Wyville 
Thomson, from specimens collected by the Expedition. Not far from the crater of 
Kilauea there are abundant woods of Acacia hoa trees, and plenty of herbage; and no 
