172 
VOYAGE TO THE 
the natives remaining behind on account of the cold. The 
advancing party carried with them the whole of the pro¬ 
visions, as their companions intended to follow them as soon 
as they had slept. After two hours' rest they awoke, and, 
resuming their journey, toiled to the top of a high peak, 
when they discovered, to their great mortification, that it 
was not the true summit of the mountain, but separated 
from it by a deep ravine, which they had neither strength 
nor spirits to attempt passing, having neither food nor water, 
but returned to the point where they had diverged from 
the path leading to the real summit. There they were 
shortly joined by the botanist and missionary, who had 
been prevented from the intense cold (thermometer 28°) 
from remaining long on the peak, which is covered with 
scoria?, ashes and sand : they had long left the limits of vege¬ 
tation, and entered on the snowy region ; the plant they 
last found being a low shrub with hoary pinnated leaves. 
Unfortunately, the theodolite they had carried up with 
them had received some injury, so as to be useless; there¬ 
fore they did nothing towards determining the height of 
Mouna Keah, which they conjecture to be 15,000 feet. The 
surveying officer, however, like Captain King and some of 
the French navigators, computes it at 17,000 feet. It is 
very seldom without snow, perhaps never entirely without 
