Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/437

431 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 431 burst out since ten o'clock the preceding- evening. Poor Honori, my guide, who is a martyr to asthma, was so much affected by their ex- halations (for they were on the North bank, just below my tent,) that he coughed inces&antly the whole night, and complained of cold, though he was wrapped in my best blanket, besides his own tapas and some other articles which he had borrowed from my Woahu man. The latter slept with his head towards the fire, coiled up most luxu- riously, and neither cold, heat, nor the roaring of the volcano at all disturbed his repose. Leaving the charge of my papers and collections under the special care of one individual, and giving plenty of provision for twelve days to the rest, consisting of one quarter of pork, with poe and taro, I started for Kapupala soon after eight A. M. The path struck off for two miles in a North- West direction, to avoid the rugged lava and ashes on the west bank of Mouna Roa, still it was indescribably diffi- cult in many places, as the lava rose in great masses, some perpendic- ular, others lying horizontal; in fact, with every variation of form and situation. In other parts the walking was pretty good, over grassy undulating plains, clothed with a healthy sward, and studded here and there with Maurani Trees in full blossom, a beautiful tree, much resembling the English Laburnum. As I withdrew from the volcano in order to obtain a good general view of the country lying South and betwixt me and the sea, I ascertained the western ridge or verge of the volcano to be decidedly the most elevated of the table land : and a narrow valley lies to the West of it. A low ridge runs from the mountain southward to the sea, terminating at the South end in a number of craters of various form and extent. West of this low ridge between the gentle ascent of grassy ground on Mouna Roa, there is a space of five to seven miles in breadth to the Grand Discharge from the Greaf Volcano, where it falls into the ocean at Kapupala. The present ar pect of the crater leads me to think that there has been no overflowing of the lava for years: the discharge is evidently from the subterranean vaults below. In 1822, the Islanders say there was a great discharge in this direction. Among the grassy, undulating ground are numerous caves, some of them of great magnitude, from forty to sixty-five feet high, and from thirty to forty feet broad, many of them of great length, like gigantic arches, and very rugged. These generally run at right angles with the dome of Mouna Roa and the sea. Some of these natural tunnels may be traced for several miles in length, with occasional holes of different sizes in the roofs, screened sometimes with an overgrowth of large Trees and Perns, which renders walking highly dangerous. At other places the tops of the vaults have fallen in for the space of one hundred or even three hun- dred yards, an occurrence which is attributable to the violent earth- quakes that sometimes visit this district, and which, as may be readily