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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The Specific Gravity Must Be
Much Greater Than That Of Ordinary Water, For It Did Not Seem
Possible To Sink, Or Even Be Thoroughly Immersed In It.
The mercury
in the air was 79 degrees, but on coming out of the water we felt
quite chilly.
I like Puna. It is like nothing else, but something about it made
us feel as if we were dwelling in a castle of indolence. I
developed a capacity for doing nothing, which horrified me, and
except when we energised ourselves to go to the hot spring, my
companions and I were content to dream in the verandah, and watch
the lengthening shadows, and drink cocoa-nut milk, till the abrupt
exit of the sun startled us, and we saw the young moon carrying the
old one tenderly, and a fitful glare 60 miles away, where the solemn
fires of Mauna Loa are burning at a height of nearly 14,000 feet.
HILO.
There are many "littles," but few "mickles" here. It is among the
last that two foreign gentlemen have successfully accomplished the
ascent of Mauna Loa, and the mystery of its fires is solved. I
write "successfully," as they went up and down in safety, but they
were involved in a series of pilikias: girths, stirrup-leathers,
and cruppers slipping and breaking, and their sufferings on the
summit from cold and mountain sickness appear to have been nearly
incapacitating. Although much excited, they are collected enough to
pronounce it "the most sublime sight ever seen." They, as well as
several natives who have passed by Kilauea, report it as in full
activity, which bears against the assertion that the flank crater
becomes quiet when the summit crater is active.
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