THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 503 



contorted mass. Everywhere were complex ripple marks sharply 

 moulded in the rapidly setting melted mass. 



All over the lava surfaces were to be met with bubbles, 

 many of them large, 4 or 5 inches across, blown in the surface 

 of the hot lava by the escaping gases, and now set and covered 

 by convex films of thin transparent lava like thin-blown green 

 bottle-glass. 



The following is an account of a great eruption of Mauna 

 Loa, which has occurred since our visit, taken from the " Times ' : 

 of April 3rd, 1877. "Hawaiian Volcanoes.— The 'Honolulu 

 Gazette,' states that in the last 90 years there have been 10 

 great eruptions on Hawaii. That of February, 1877, is the 

 eleventh of the series. On the 14th of that month Mauna Loa, 

 which is nearly 14,000 feet high, sent out an immense volume 

 of smoke that rose to a height of 16,000 feet, and spread out, 

 darkening the sky, over an area of 100 square miles, and then 

 a stream of lava started down the mountain sides, but the source 

 dried up at the end of six hours, and the eruption ceased. The 

 sight was grand while it lasted. Mr. C. J. Lyons writes from 

 Wainea that the columns of illuminated smoke shot up with 

 such velocity that the first 5,000 feet were passed inside of a 

 minute. Ten days afterwards, early on the 24th of February, 

 there was a submarine eruption 50 miles from Mauna Loa, near 

 Kealakeakua Bay. Flames were thrown up from the sea, and 

 numerous jets of steam arose on a line about a mile long, where 

 the sea was from 150 feet to 400 feet deep, as if the crust of 

 rock under the sea had been broken in a fissure to let the inter- 

 nal fires out. In many places lumps of lava were thrown up, 

 and it was so porous, somewhat like pumice-stone, that while 

 hot it floated away, but sank as soon as it became cold and 

 saturated with water. Another rupture, doubtless a continua- 

 tion of the submarine fissure, was traced inland from the shore 

 nearly three miles, varying in width from a few inches to 3 feet. 

 In some places the water was seen pouring down the opening 

 into the abyss below, food for the fiery element. A severe 

 earthquake-shock was felt by those living at Kaawaloa and 

 Keei during the night of the eruption." 



The characteristic gods of the Hawaians were not the Sun 



