The Hades of Hawaiian Mythology.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1967, 14 February 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Hades of Hawaiian Mythology.

Tits Sandwich Is'ands boast of two natural wonders — the Jargest extinct and the largest aotive volcano in the world. The former is located on the island of Maui, the summit being nearly 11,000 feet above the level of the sea, and a crater over forty-eight miles in circumference. One can look down into the crater 2,000 feet, the]sideg now terraced nnd covered with sandalwood, giant ferns, and a wonderful profusion of tropic&l floweraand shrubs. The active volcano is situated in the Island of Hawaii. The crater is situated on a spur of Mauna Loa, 1,000 feet above sea level The crater ia not a cone, but a great pit on % level bench, nine mile 3 in circumference. You go down, down over this almost perpendicular wall 800 feet, and stand on the floor of the crater. Thia i 3 the place of eternal burnings, the house of overlasting fire of Hawaiian mythology. The area at the bottom of the crater is not a liquid mass, but for railea and miles all round there spreads a scene of unearthly grandeur. Five or six lakea of lire he to left and right ; the floor beneath ia so hot one can scarcely walk over it ; lava oozes up through the fisaurea. Huge cones twenty or thirty feet high, made by tha bubbles of lava, rise through the seams and are cooled by the air.