GEOLOGY. 265 



pices and exploding rocks, until it reached the forests at the base 

 of the mountain, where it burned its fiery way, consuming the 

 jungle, evapoi'ating the water of the streams and pools, cutting 

 down the trees, and sending up clouds of smoke and steam and 

 murky columns of fleecy wreaths to heaven. 



"All Eastern Hawaii was a sheen of light, and our night was 

 turned into day. So great was our illumination that one could 

 read without a lamp, and labor and travelling and recreation 

 might go on as in the daytime. Mariners at sea saw the light at 

 two hundred miles distance. 



" In the daytime the atmosphere for thousands of square miles 

 wouM be filled with a murky haze, through which the sunbeams 

 shed a pale and sickly light. Smoke, steam, gases, ashes, cin- 

 ders floated in the air, sometimes spreading out like a fan, some- 

 times careei'ing in swift currents upon the wind, or gyrating in 

 ever-changing colors in fitful breezes. The point from which the 

 fire-fountain issued is ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, 

 thus making the igneous pillar a distinct object of obseiwation 

 along the whole eastern coast of Hawaii. 



" During the eruption the writer made an excursion to the 

 source. After three days of hard struggling in the jungle and 

 over fields, ridges, and hills of bristling scoria, he arrived near 

 sunset at the scene of action. All night long he stood as near to 

 the glowing pillar as the vehement heat would allow, listening to 

 the startling explosions and the awful roar of the molten column, 

 as it rushed upward a thousand feet, and fell back in a fiery ava- 

 lanche which made the mountain tremble. Th6 fierce, red glare, 

 the subterraneous mutterings, the rapid explosions of gases, the 

 rushes and roar, the sudden and startling bursts, as of crashing 

 thunder — all were awe-inspiring, and all combined to render 

 the scene one of indescribable brilliancy and of terrible sublimity. 

 The rivers of fire from the fountain flowed about thirty-five miles, 

 and stopped within ten miles of Hilo. Had the mountain played 

 ten days longer it would probably have reached the shore." 



ASCENT OF MOUNT HOOD. 



A correspondent of the " Springfield Republican " gives an ac- 

 count of the ascent of Mount Hood, Oregon, recently, by Prof. A. 

 Wood, and a party of gentlemen. It would seem that Mount 

 Hood is really a volcano, and that it is the highest mountain in 

 the United States, 17,600 feet high. He says : — 



U The summit area is of very limited dimensions — a crescent 

 in shape, half a mile in length, and from three to fifty feet in 

 widtli. It is a fearful place, as it is the imminent brow of a preci- 

 pice on the north, sheer down not less than a vertical mile of bare 

 columnar rock. This height is lifted so far above all other heights 

 (except the four distant snow-clad peaks to the north, and Mount 

 Jefterson on the south), that the country beneath seemed de- 

 pressed to a uniform level, and the horizon retreated to a distance 

 of more than two hundred miles, including nearly all Oregon and 

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