CURIOSITIES FROM HONOLULU.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4050, 5 November 1874, Page 3

CURIOSITIES FROM HONOLULU.

[l-ROM TIIF'. " SVDNF.V ItERA r.T>. "] Souk very curious specimens of lava have been shewn in Sydney from the celebrated volcano, Maun a Loa, on the island of llilo, near Honolulu. This volcano, it may not be generally known, is by far the largest in the world, rising to a height of about 14,000 ft. above the level of the sea, although the crater is situated at a considerably less altitude. This volcano has lately become quite an attraction to tourists, who are enabled to reach the island of Hiloby means of a steamer which plies regularly from Honolulu. A rou ,:h but exciting ride on horseback is the moans by which the mountain itself is arrived at, but the wonders of nature then revealed amply repay the traveller for any trouble and pains he may have undergone. The crater and its constant eruptions have been frequently described before in general terms, but it is stated that geologic and volcanic curiosities abound there in suflicient variety to occupy the lifetime of a savan. The specimens shewn are masses of lava, which are forced up by some unseen agency through cracksand fissures in the ground, and instantly congeal or harden on exposure to the atmosphere, into the most fantastic shapes. Some of these jets take the form of a straight rod, often as much as live or six feet in length, which can be broken off and preserved m one piece. In other places \s hel e the underground pressure was weaker the lava has cooled into shapes resembling clusters of grapes ; in some eases the drops have evidently assumed at first an oval or globular form, but the contraction caused by the process of coolin" has wrinkled the crust that had formed in the first instance on the exterior, and thus caused this drops to present the exact appearance of a bunch of shrivelled fruit. Other specimens are apparently limestoni: crystals, resembling the stalactites of the Wombeyau caves in this colony. Perhaps the most .curious of all the specimens is a collection of ■what is known by the natives of the island as " Pele's hair," Pele being in their mythology the goddess of fire. This substance consists of threads or filaments of glass, said to be blown by the winds from the surface of the sea 1 of melted lava, and muoh'resembling the fine spun glass produced by the glass-blower's wheel