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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This Crater Is Bordered By A Narrow And Very Fantastic Ridge
Of Rock, In Or On Which There Is A
Mound about 60 feet high, formed
of fragments of black, orange, blue, red, and golden lava, with a
cavity or
Blow-hole in the centre, estimated by Brigham as having a
diameter of 25 feet, and a depth of 1800. The interior is dark
brown, much grooved horizontally, and as smooth and regular as if
turned. There are no steam cracks or signs of heat anywhere.
Superb caves or lava-bubbles abound at a height of 6000 feet. These
are moist with ferns, and the drip from their roofs is the water
supply of this porous region.
Hualalai, owing to the vegetation sparsely sprinkled over it, looks
as if it had been quiet for ages, but it has only slept since 1801,
when there was a tremendous eruption from it, which flooded several
villages, destroyed many plantations and fishponds, filled up a deep
bay 20 miles in extent, and formed the present coast. The terrified
inhabitants threw living hogs into the stream, and tried to
propitiate the anger of the gods by more costly offerings, but
without effect, till King Kamehameha, attended by a large retinue of
priests and chiefs, cut off some of his hair, which was considered
sacred, and threw it into the torrent, which in two days ceased to
run. This circumstance gave him a greatly increased ascendancy,
from his supposed influence with the deities of the volcanoes.
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