OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 393 



In a letter dated September 27th, 1855, Mr. Coan says : "On the evening of 

 the 11th of August, a small point glowing like Sirius, was seen at the height of 

 twelve thousand feet on the north-western slope of Mauna Loa. This radiant point 

 rapidly expanded, throwing off coruscations of light, until it looked like a full-orbed 

 sun." 1 



Sixty-five days after, the fissure which permitted the escape of the lava was still open, and 

 in awful activity. The stream was flowing directly towards Hilo and there were no valleys 

 or ridy-es of sufficient size to turn its course. The inhabitants of this beautiful village were 

 exceedingly anxious, and made frequent excursions to the scene of the lava-flow. On the 

 2d of October, Mr. Coan with a party of friends passed through the thick forest, following 

 the course of the Wailuku, and on the fifth reached the lava-stream early in the morning, 

 at a narrow point where it was about three miles wide. " In some places it spread out into 

 wide lakes and seas, apparently from five to eight miles broad, enclosing, as is usually the 

 case, little islands not flooded by the fusion." Mr. Coan continues in this letter', which is 

 dated Oct. 15th, 1855 2 : — 



" Early on Saturday, the 6th, we were ascending our rugged pathway, amidst steam and 

 smoke and heat which almost blinded and scathed us. At ten we came to open orifices 

 down which we looked into the fiery river which rushed furiously beneath our feet. Up to 

 this we had come to no open lake or stream of active fusion. We had seen in the night 

 many lights like street-lamps, glowing along the slope of the mountain at considerable 

 distances from each other, while the stream made its way in a subterranean channel, traced 

 only by these vents. From ten a. m. and onward, these fiery vents were frequent, some of 

 them measuring ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred feet in diameter. In one place only, we 

 saw the river uncovered for thirty rods and rushing down a declivity of from ten to twenty- 

 five degrees. The scene was awful, the momentum incredible, the fusion perfect (a white- 

 heat), and the velocity forty miles an hour. The banks on each side of this stream were 

 red-hot, jagged and overhanging, adorned with burning stalactites and festooned with 

 immense quantities of filamentose, or capillary glass, called ' Pelt's hair.' From this point to 

 the summit crater all was inexpressibly interesting. 



"Valve after valve opened as we went up, out of which issued 'fire and smoke and brim- 

 stone,' and down which we looked as into the caverns of Pluto. The gases were so pungent 

 that we had to use the greatest caution, approaching a stream or an orifice on the wind- 

 ward side, and watching every change or gyration of the breeze. Sometimes whirlwinds 

 would sweep along, loaded with deadly gases, and threatening the unwary traveller. After 

 a hot and weary struggle over smoking masses of jagged scoriae and slag, thrown in wild 

 confusion into hills, cones, and ridges, and spread out over vast fields, we came at one p. m. to 

 the terminal or summit crater (not Mokuaweoweo). 



" This we found to be a low elongated cone, or rather a series of cones, standing over a 

 great fissure in the mountain. Mounting to the crest of the highest cone, we expected to 

 look down into a great sea of raging lavas, but instead of this the throat of the crater, at the 

 depth of one hundred feet, was clogged with scoriae, cinders, and ashes through which the 

 smoke and gases rushed up furiously from seams and holes. One orifice within this cone 

 was about twenty feet in diameter, and was constantly sending up a dense column of blue 

 and white smoke which rolled off in masses and spread over all that part of the mountain, 



1 Silliman's Journal, [n. s.] vol. xxi., p. 144. 2 Ibid., p. 139. 



MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I. Pt. 3. 100 



