Somehow, one expects to pass through some
ulterior stage of blackness up to the summit. It is no such thing;
and the great surprise of Haleakala to me was, that when according
to calculation there should have been a summit, an abyss of vast
dimensions opened below. The mountain top has been in fact blown
off, and one is totally powerless to imagine what the forces must
have been which rent it asunder.
The crater was clear of fog and clouds, and lighted in every part by
the risen sun. The whole, with its contents, can be seen at a
single glance, though its girdling precipices are nineteen miles in
extent. Its huge, irregular floor is 2000 feet below; New York
might be hidden away within it, with abundant room to spare; and
more than one of the numerous subsidiary cones which uplift
themselves solitary or in clusters through the area, attain the
height of Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh. On the north and east are the
Koolau and Kaupo Gaps, as deep as the crater, through which oceans
of lava found their way to the sea. It looks as if the volcanic
forces, content with rending the mountain top in twain, had then
passed into an endless repose.
The crater appears to be composed of a hard grey clinkstone, much
fissured; but lower down the mountain, the rock is softer, and has a
bluish tinge.
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