h pleasure and interest in
watching the various movements of the clouds; this day in particular,
they attracted our attention; the whole island beneath us was
covered with a dense white mass, in the center of which was the cloud
of the volcano rising like an immense dome. All was motionless until
the hour arrived when the sea-breeze set in from the different sides
of the island; a motion was then seen in the clouds, at the opposite
extremities, both of which seemed apparently moving toward the same
center, in undulations, until they became quite compact, and so
contracted in space as to enable us to see a well defined horizon; at
the same time there was a wind from the mountain, at right angles,
that was affecting the mass, and drawing it asunder in the opposite
direction. The play of these masses was at times in circular orbits,
as they became influenced alternately by the different forces, until
the whole was passing to and from the center in every direction,
assuming every variety of form, shape and motion.

"On other days clouds would approach us from the S. W. when we had a
strong N. E. trade-wind blowing, coming up with cumulus front,
reaching the height of about eight thousand feet, spreading
horizontally, and then dissipating. At times they would be seen lying
over the island in large horizontal sheets as white as the purest
snow, with a sky above of the deepest azure blue that fancy can
depict. I saw nothing in it approaching to blackness at any time."
(Exploring Expedition, vol iv. p. 155).

Here, in the last paragraph, we have the whole truth disclosed. The N. E.
trade was blowing on Mauna Loa, 13,000 feet above the sea, and the
sea-breeze blew in on the _leeward side_, its moisture condensing over the
volcanic island, but without rising _up the mountain_, or _through the
surface-trade_, or _above 8,000 feet_.

So, too, the celebrated aeronaut, Mr. Wise, in the course of more than a
hundred ascensions, some during high wind, and others during rain storms,
never met with an ascending current, except in a single instance, in the
body of a hail-cloud, and then there were descending currents also, the
usual intestine motion of hail-cloud with its opposite polarities.

I copy a description of his passage through the clouds of a rain-storm,
and his floating a long period above them; and there was no