FROM YOKOHAMA TO VALPARAISO. 
166 
between Maui and Hawaii, when we obtained the first glimpse of the great volcano Mauna 
Loa, the red light of the lava-streams flowing out of its crater just v isible among the stars 
on the southern horizon. Steaming against adverse winds and waves, we made little progress 
during the night, and about noon on the 13th we found ourselves in the narrowest part of 
the channel. The summit of IMauna Halenknla, on iMaui Island, was hidden behind the 
clouds ; but, looking southwards, we had a fine panoramic view of the island of Hawaii, with 
its three giant volcanoes—Mauna Hualalai, 7822 feet high, on our right hand ; Mauna Kea, 
13,953 feet in height, on the left; and between them, Mauna Loa, at present in a state of 
eruption, rising to 13,760 feet above the level of the sea. A few specks of snow were visible 
near the summit of Mauna Kea. The two last-mentioned volcanoes, although of about the 
same height as the Matterhorn, and only 1000 feet lower than Mont Blanc, do not produce, 
as viewed from the sea, the impression of great height conveyed by the monarchs of the Alps. 
This may be due partly to the absence of lower mountain ranges, by which the eye is led 
up, as it were, by degrees to the contemplation of the highest summits, partly also to the low 
angle of inclination of their slopes. The usual conception of a volcano is that of a conical 
hill or mountain, the sides of which form with the horizon an angle of from 30° to 40 0 — 
such, for example, as Gunong Api in the Banda Islands, the volcanoes of Tidore and Ternate, 
and, nearer home, the Peak of Teneriffe, Mount Etna, and Vesuvius. The volcanoes of 
Hawaii have rather the appearance of flattened domes than that of steep conical mountains, 
as their slopes form with the horizon an angle of only from io° to 20°. This remarkable 
variety of conformation, which strikes the observer at first sight, may be closely connected 
with their origin. Owing to the pressure of the superincumbent ocean, the matter ejected from 
the interior of the earth will form more level declivities if the eruption commences at the 
bottom of the sea, than if it had occurred on the surface of the dry land. Hence a marked 
difference between a volcanic cone of submarine and one of subaerial origin. Most, if not all 
the islands in the ocean which are the remains of volcanoes built up from the bottom of the sea 
—such, for example, as Ascension Island, Marion Island, Tahiti and its neighbouring island 
of Eimeo, and, in the present instance, Hawaii—rise from the sea at an angle of from io° to 
20°, and seem to have originally formed flattened domes, although their general outline has 
been more or less obliterated by subsequent eruptions and denudation ; while the numerous 
cones found on the slopes of these ancient volcanoes, and which are the result of subaerial 
eruptions, have an, inclination of from 30° to 40°. 
During the afternoon of the 13th we sailed along the east coast of Hawaii. The 
appearance of the land afforded a striking example of the erosive action of water—that great 
sculptor, so to speak, to whom we are indebted for the beautiful scenery which adorns this 
earth, and but for whom the surface of our planet would present, like that of the moon, 
a mere assemblage of volcanic blisters. Towards Upolou Point, the northern extremity of 
Hawaii, owing to a more recent flow of lava, sufficient time has not gone by for the formation 
of valleys and sea cliffs, and the land slopes down to the sea in the form of an inclined 
plane, scored by numerous shallow water-courses, which run in zigzag fashion towards the 
