OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 395 



"A little before sundown our guide led us at right angles from the stream we had been 

 threading for six hours, and in a few minutes the fires of the volcano glared upon us through 

 the woods. We were within six rods of the awful flood which was moving sullenly along 

 on its mission towards Hilo. Thrusting our poles into the lava, we stirred it, and dipped it 

 up like pitch, taking out the boiling mass, and cooling all the specimens we desired. We 

 were on the right or southern verge of the stream, and we also found that we were about 

 two miles above its terminus, where it was glowing with intense radiance and pushing its 

 molten flood into the dense forest which still disputed its passage to the sea. 



"We judged the stream to be two or three miles wide at this point, and over all this ex- 

 panse, and as far as the eye could see above, and down to the end of the river, the whole 

 surface was dotted with countless fires, both mineral and vegetable. Immense trees which 

 had stood for hours, or for a day, in this molten sea, were falling before and below us, while 

 the trunks of those previously prostrated were burning in great numbers upon the surface 

 of the lava. 



" You are aware that the great fire-vent on the mountain discharges its floods of incandes- 

 cent minerals into a subterranean pipe which extends, at the depth of from fifty to two 

 hundred feet, down the side of the mountain. Under this arched passage the boiling lava 

 hurries down with awful speed until it reaches the plains below. Here the fusion spreads 

 out under a black surface of hardened lava some six or eight miles wide, depositing immense 

 masses which stiffen and harden on the way. Channels, however, winding under this 

 scorified stratum, conduct portions of the lava down to the terminus of the stream, some 

 sixty-five miles from its high fountain. Here it pushes out from under its mural arch, 

 exhibiting a fiery glow, across the whole breadth of the stream. Where the ground is not 

 steep, and where the obstructions from trees, jungle, depressions, etc., are numerous, the 

 progress is very slow, say one mile a week. 



" On the evening of our arrival we encamped within ten feet of the flowing lava, and, as 

 before stated, on the southern margin of the stream, some two miles above its extreme 

 lower points. Here under a large tree, and on a bank elevated some three feet above the 

 igneous flood which moved before us, we kept vigils until morning. During the whole 

 night the scene was indescribably brilliant and terribly sublime. The greater portion of the 

 vast area before us was of ebon blackness, and consisted of the hardened or smouldering 

 flood which had been thrown out and deposited here in a depth of from ten feet to one 

 hundred. 



" Not only was the lava, as aforesaid, gushing out at the end of this layer, but also at its 

 sides. These lateral gushings came out before and behind us, and two thirds surrounded our 

 camp during the night, so that in the morning, when we decamped, the fusion was just five 

 feet, by measurement, in front of us, six feet in our rear, and three feet, or the diameter of 

 the trunk of our camp-tree, on our left. The drenching rain and our chilled condition in- 

 duced us to keep as near the fire as we could bear it. Evening and morning we boiled our 

 tea-kettle and fried our ham upon the melted lavas, and when we left, our sheltering tree was 

 on fire." 



Mr. Coan made several attempts to cross the lava-flow, " but the hardened surface of the 

 stream was swelling and heaving at innumerable points by the accumulating masses and the 

 upraising pressure of the lava below ; and valves were continually opening, out of which 

 the molten flood gushed and flowed in little streams on every side of us. Not a square rod 



