The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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With Its Cold Ashes And Dead
Force, It Is A Most Tremendous Spectacle Of The Power Of Fire.
Some previous travellers had generously left some faggots on the
summit, and we made a large fire for warmth, and I rolled my blanket
round me, and sat with my feet among the hot embers, but all to no
purpose.
The wind was strong and keen, and the fierce splendour of
the tropic sun conveyed no heat. Mr. A. went away investigating,
the native rolled himself in his poncho and fell asleep by the fire,
and I divided the time between glimpses into the awful desolation of
the crater, snatched between the icy gusts of wind, and the
enjoyment of the wonderful cloud scenery which to everybody is a
great charm of the view from Haleakala. The day was perfect; for
first we had an inimitable view of the crater and all that could be
seen from the mountain-top, and then an equally inimitable view of
Cloudland. There was the gaunt, hideous, desolate abyss, with its
fiery cones, its rivers and surges of black lava and grey ash,
crossing and mingling all over the area, mixed with splotches of
colour and coils of satin rock, its walls dark and frowning,
everywhere riven and splintered, and clouds perpetually drifting in
through the great gaps, and filling up the whole crater with white
swirling masses, which in a few minutes melted away in the sunshine,
leaving it all as sharply definite as before.
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