Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/426

420 420 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. and returned to the ship at night. On Tuesday, the 31st of December, we stood in for the island of Hawaii, and saw Mouna Kuah very clearly, a few small stripes of snow lying 1 near its summit, which would seem to indicate an altitude inferior to that which has been commonly assigned to this mountain. My object being to ascend and explore Mouna Kuah as soon as pos- sible, I started on the 7th of January, 1834, and, after passing for rather more than three miles over plain country, commenced the ascent, which was, however, gradual, by entering the wood. Here the scenery was truly beautiful. Large timber trees were covered with creepers and species of Tillandsio,, while the Tree Ferns gave a pecul- iar character to the whole country. We halted and dined at the Saw Mill, and made some barometrical observations, of which the result is recorded, along with those that occupied my time daily during the voyage, in my journal. Above this spot the Banana no longer grows, but I observed a species of Rubus among the rocks. We continued our way under such heavy rain, as, with the already bad state of the path, rendered walking very difficult and laborious ; in the chinks of the lava, the mud was so wet that we repeatedly sunk in it above our knees. Encamping at some small huts, we passed an uncomfortable night, as no dry wood could be obtained for fuel, apd it continued to rain without intermission. The next day we proceeded on our way at eight o'clock, the path becoming worse and worse. The large Tree Ferns, and other trees that shadowed it, proved no protection from the incessant rain, and I was drenched to the skin the whole day, besides repeatedly slipping into deep holes, full of soft mud. The number of species of Filices is very great, and towards the upper end of the wood, the timber trees, sixty or seventy feet high, and three to ten inches in circumference are matted with Mosses, which, together with the Til- landsias and Ferns, betoken an exceedingly humid atmosphere. The wood terminates abruptly ; but as the lodge of the cattle-hunter was still about a mile and a half farther up the clear flank of the mountain, situated on the bank of a craggy lava stream, I delayed ascertaining the exact altitude of the spot where the woody region ends (a point of no small interest to the Botanist), until my return, and sate down to rest myself awhile, in a place where the ground was thickly carpeted with species of Fragaria, some of which were in blossom, and a few of them in fruit. Here a Mr. Miles, part owner of the saw-mill that I had passed the day before, came up to me; he was on his way to join his partner, a Mr. Castles, who was engaged in curing the flesh of the wild cattle near the verge of the wood, and his conversation helped to beguile the fatigues of the road, for though the distance I had accom- plished this morning was little more than seven miles, still the labouri- ous nature of the path, and the weight of more than sixty pounds on my back, where I carried my barometer, thermometer, book, and