Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/433

427 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 427 ing, one of whom, eighty years of age, with hair white as snow, was engaged in feeding two favourite cats with fish. My little terrier dis- puted the fare with them, to the no small annoyance of their mistress. A well-looking young female amused me with singing, while she was engaged in the process of cooking a dog on heated stones. I also ob- served a handsome young man, whose very strong stiff black hair was allowed to grow to a great length on the top of his head, while it was cut close over the ears, and falling down on the back of his head and neck, had all the appearance of a Roman helmet. January the 23rd. This morning the old lady was engaged in feed- ing a dog with fox-like ears, instead of her cats. She compelled the poor animal to swallow Poe, by cramming it into his mouth, and what he put out at the sides, she took up and ate herself; this she did, as she informed me, by way of fattening the dog for food. A little while before daybreak my host went to the door of the lodge, and after calling over some extraordinary words which would seem to set orthography at defiance, a loud grunt in response from under the thick shade of some adjoining Tree-Ferns was followed by the appearance of a fine, large, black pig, which, coming at his master's call, was forthwith caught and killed for the use of myself and my attendants. The meat was cooked on heated stones, and three men were kindly sent to carry it to the volcano, a distance of twenty-three miles, tied up in the large leaves of Banana and Ti-tree. The morning was deliciously cool and clear, with a light breeze. Immediately on passing through a narrow belt of wood, where the timber was large, and its trunks matted with parasitic Ferns, I arrived at a tract of ground, over which there was but a scanty covering of soil above the lava, interspersed with low bushes and Ferns. Here I beheld one of the grandest scenes imagin- able, Mouna Roa reared his bold front, covered with snow, far above the region of verdure, while Mouna Kuah was similarly clothed, to the timber! region on the South side, while the. summit was cleared of the snow tLat had fallen on the nights of- the 12th and two following days. The district of Hido, "Byron's Bay," which I had quitted the previous day, presented, from its great moisture, a truly lovely appearance, con- trasting in a striking manner with the country where I then stood, and which extended to the sea, whose surface bore evident signs of having been repeatedly ravaged by volcanic fires. In the distance, to the South-west, the dense black cloud which overhangs the great volcano attests, amid the otherwise unsullied purity of the sky, the mighty operations at present going on in that immense laboratory. The lava, throughout the whole district, appeared to be of every colour and shape, compact, bluish, and black, porous or vesicular, heavy and light. In some places it lies in regular lines and masses, resembling narrow, horizontal, basaltic columns; in others, in tortuous forms, or gathered into rugged humps of small elevation ; while, scattered over the whole