They come down at night of their own
sagacity, in close converging columns, sleep on the gravel about the
station, and in the early morning betake themselves to their feeding
grounds on the mountain.
Mauna Kea, and the forests which skirt his base, are the resort of
thousands of wild cattle, and there are many men nearly as wild, who
live half savage lives in the woods, gaining their living by
lassoing and shooting these animals for their skins. Wild black
swine also abound.
The mist as usual disappeared at night, leaving a sky wonderful with
stars, which burned blue and pale against the furnace glare on the
top of Mauna Loa, to which we are comparatively near. I woke at
three from the hopeless cold, and before five went out with Mr.
Green to explore the adjacent lava. The atmosphere was perfectly
pure, and suffused with rose-colour, not a cloud-fleece hung round
the mountain tops, hoar-frost whitened the ground, the pure white
smoke of the volcano rose into the reddening sky, and the air was
elixir. It has been said and written that there are no steam-cracks
or similar traces of volcanic action on Mauna Kea, but in several
fissures I noticed ferns growing belonging to an altitude 4000 feet
lower, and on putting my arm down, found a heat which compelled me
to withdraw it, and as the sun rose these cracks steamed in all
directions.
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