GEOLOGY. 357 



ing January 2>d, IS 50. On the evening of Saturday, January 22, the snow 

 on the mountain was seen white and unobscured by clouds or vapor; there 

 were no signs of smoke, and none of eruption. On Sunday, thick clouds of 

 smoke were seen gathering about the mountain, and at evening the whole 

 sky was lighted with a terrific glare, and the lava could be seen spouting 

 from a crater near the summit of Mauna Loa. As in all the other eruptions 

 from that mountain, the lava was thrown up in a jet, apparently nearly one 

 thousand feet high ; it flowed down the northern slope of the mountain, and 

 in one or two days " formed for itself a covered channel from the summit 

 crater to the plain between the mountains." 



A writer in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, published at Honolulu, S. I., 

 thus describes the incidents of a visit to the volcano during the continuance 

 of this great eruption : 



From the distance at which we observed the crater, about ten miles, and 

 from various points of observation, it appeared to be circular, its width being 

 about equal to its breadth, and perhaps three hundred feet across the mouth. 

 This may be too moderate an estimate, and it may prove to be five hundred 

 or even eight hundred feet across it. The rim of the crater is surrounded or 

 made up of cones formed from the stones and scoria thrown out. The lava 

 does not simply run out from the side of the crater, like water from the side 

 of a bowl, but is thrown up in continuous columns, very much like the Geyser 

 springs, as represented in school geographies. At times this spouting ap- 

 peared to be feeble, rising but little above the rim of the crater; but gener- 

 ally, as if eager to escape from the pent-up bowels of the earth, it rose to a 

 height nearly equal to the base of the crater. But the columns and masses 

 of lava thrown out were ever varying in form and height. Sometimes, 

 when very active, a spire or cone of lava would shoot up like a rocket, or 

 in the form of a huge pyramid, to a height of nearly double the base of the 

 crater. If the mouth of the crater is five hundred feet across, the per- 

 pendicular column must be eight hundred to one thousand feet in height! 

 Then, by watching it with a spyglass, the column could be seen to diverge, 

 and fall in all manner of shapes, like a beautiful fountain. 



This part of the scene Avas of wonderful grandeur. The fiery redness of 

 the molten lava, ever varying in form, from the simple gurgling of a spring 

 to the hugest fountain conceivable, is a scene that will remain on the mem- 

 ory of the observer till death. Large masses of red-hot lava, weighing hun- 

 dreds, if not thousands, of tons, thrown up with inconceivable power to a 

 great height, could be seen occasionally falling outside or on the rim of the 

 crater, tumbling down the cones and rolling over the precipice, remaining 

 brilliant for a few moments, then becoming cold and black, and lost among 

 the surrounding blocks of lava. 



A dense, heavy column of smoke continually rose out of the crater, but 

 always on the north side, and took a north-easterly direction, rising in one 

 continuous column far above the mountain, to a height of perhaps ten 

 thousand feet from the crater. 



On leaving the crater, the lava stream does not appear at the surface for 

 some distance, say an eighth of a mile, as it has cut its way through a deep 

 ravine or gulch, which hides it from the eye. How deep this gulch may be, 

 is all conjecture, as it is impossible to get near enough to look into it; but it 

 probably is several hundred feet deep. The first, then, that we sec of the lava, 

 after being thrown up in the crater, is its branching out into various streams 

 some distance below the fountain-head. Instead of running in one large 



