ABSTRACT
The construction of the islands being essentially volcanic, the character of the scenery depends on that condition. Indeed, it is probable that they are but domes concealing the vast internal fires, and the crust which separates living nature from this great agent of destruction seems in places to be thin enough. Not that it is to be supposed there is any want of permanence in their existence; forests have grown old, and a hundred generations of men have trod the hills and valleys in security. During the late great eruption of l\1:auna Loa, one of the newspapers published in Honolulu spoke of the volcano as a national institution, of which the inhabitants of the islands were proud, and to which they were, perhaps, almost attached.
