OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 40] 



running, as it seemed, at the rate of two or three miles per hour, burning the jungle and 

 trees before them, and vying with each other in their work of destruction. 



" For the first few miles the stream appeared to be a succession of cataracts and rapids. 

 As it approached the plain between the two mountains, it gradually changed into a network 

 of streams, or a lake of fire, embracing numerous islands and sending out streams on all 

 sides. The color of the stream upon its first appearance was a light red approaching to 

 white ; on the plain a deep blood-red. From the plain towards Wainanalii the stream was 

 narrow, varying from half a mile to a mile in width, and showing only a dull reddish light. 

 . . . The next morning we were able to make some explorations about the craters. On the 

 windward side we could ascend them and look in, though the heat was so great that we 

 could look for a moment only, before turning our faces away. The sulphurous gases also 

 were so strong that we were obliged to close our mouths and noses as we approached to 

 look in. The craters were both very irregular in shape not only on the outside but on the 

 inside. No liquid lava was seen in either at the time. In each there were two or three 

 separate holes where gases and steam were issuing. The sides of these holes, and indeed 

 the entire bottom of the craters, were at a white heat. The lava-stream appeared to be 

 running underneath these craters, and the holes within seemed to be merely vents for the 

 escape of gases. The craters were formed of fragments of light scoriaB and lava combined. 

 The lower of the two (the one from which the jet was thrown up for fifteen days) was now 

 open on the lower side. This was not the case while the jet was thrown up, according to 

 Mr. Faudrey. . . . The upper crater was closed on all sides. 



" Above these two craters we visited a third not then in action, but still hot. This was 

 smaller and open on the lower side, and broken down somewhat on the upper side. This 

 was formed not so much of scorise as of old lava. Above this we could see others of the 

 same kind, and it is probable that they extend to the place where the lava first spouted out. 

 From that place to the craters then in action, the stream appears to have flowed under the 

 surface mostly, but to have been forced up to the surface, where these craters, now inactive, 

 appear, by hydraulic pressure, or by the pressure of gases ; or by both combined. 



"The next morning we visited the point where the stream first made its appearance. 

 Here we found the lava rushing out of its subterranean passage, and dashing over cataracts 

 and along rapids at such a rate that the eye could scarcely follow it. The lava was at a 

 white heat, and apparently as liquid as water. 

 Only a few feet from where the stream issued, 

 small masses of lava were thrown up from ten 

 to fifty feet into the air, which cooled in falling. 

 The cause of this was without doubt the escape 

 of gas, and we then thought that the gas might 

 come from the stream itself. But about three 

 hours afterward we returned to the same place, 

 and found that the action had greatly increased. 

 Gases were escaping at two other points (Fig. 30 

 h and c) a few rods below the point first seen. ,,.. M , , t . , *. ^. ,«,,, ia . 



/ 1 fig. 36. Lava fountain of February 10th, 1859. 



Pieces of lava were thrown as high as one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet, and at the lowest of the three points (Fig. 36 a), there was a fountain 

 twenty-five feet high. The bits of lava thrown up cooled as they fell, and had already 



MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I. Pt. 3. 10-2 



