250 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
base, and formed as it were the natural buttresses of 
some lofty mountain, raised in the first instance by the 
accumulation of volcanic matter, whose bowels had been 
consumed by volcanic fire, and whose sides had after¬ 
wards fallen into the vast furnace, where, reduced a 
second time to a liquefied state, they had been again 
vomited out on the adjacent plain. 
But the magnificent fires of Kirauea, which we had 
viewed with such admiration, appeared to dwindle 
into insignificance, when we thought of the probable 
subterranean fires immediately beneath us. The 
whole island of Hawaii, covering a space of four 
thousand square miles, from the summits of its 
lofty mountains, perhaps 15,000 or 16,000 feet above 
the level of the sea,* down to the beach, is, according 
to every observation we could make, one complete 
mass of lava, or other volcanic matter, in different 
stages of decomposition. Perforated with innumerable 
apertures in the shape of craters, the island forms a 
• In Cook’s Voyages, Captain King, speaking of Mouna- 
Kaah, (Kea,) remarks that it “ may be clearly seen at fourteen 
leagues’ distance.” Describing Mouna-Roa, and estimating it 
according to the tropical line of snow, he observes, “ This moun¬ 
tain must be at least 16,020 feet high, which exceeds the height 
of the Pico de Teyde, or Peak of Teneriffe, by 724 feet, accord¬ 
ing to Dr. Heberden’s computation, or 3680 according to that 
of Chevalier de Borda. The peaks of Mouna Kaah appeared to 
be about half a mile high; and as they are entirely covered 
with snow, the altitude of their summits cannot be less than 
18,400 feet. But it is probable that both these mountains 
may be considerably higher; for in insular situations, the effects 
of the warm sea air must necessarily remove the line of snow, 
in equal latitudes, to a greater height, than where the atmo¬ 
sphere is chilled on all sides by an immense tract of perpetual 
snow.” 
