392 W. T. BRIGHAM ON THE VOLCANIC PHENOMENA 



rending the mountain all the way down from the summit to the place of ejection. The 

 mountain seemed to be siphunculated ; the fountain of fusion being elevated some two or 

 three thousand feet above the lateral crater, and being pressed down an inclined subter- 

 ranean tube, escaped through this valve with a force which threw its burning masses to the 

 height of four or five hundred feet. The eruption first issued from a depression in the 

 mountain, but a rim of scoriae two hundred feet in elevation had already been formed 

 around the orifice in the form of a hollow truncated cone. This cone was about half a mile 

 in circumference at its base, and the orifice at the top may be three hundred feet in diam- 

 eter. I approached as near as I could bear the heat, and stood amidst the ashes, cinders, 

 scoriae, slag and pumice, which were scattered wide and wildly around. From the horrid 

 throat of this cone vast and continuous jets of red-hot and sometimes white-hot lava 

 were being ejected with a noise that was almost deafening, and a force which threatened to 

 rend the rocky ribs of the mountain, and to shiver its adamantine pillars. At times the 

 sound seemed subterranean, deep, and infernal. First, a rumbling, a muttering, a hissing 

 or deep premonitory surging ; then followed an awful explosion, like the roar of broadsides 

 in a naval battle, or the quick discharge of park after park of artillery on the field of 

 carnage. Sometimes the sound resembled that of ten thousand furnaces in full blast. Again 

 it was like the rattling of a regiment of musketry ; sometimes it was like the roar of the 

 ocean along a rock-bound shore ; and sometimes like the booming of distant thunder. 

 The detonations were heard along the shores of Hilo. The eruptions were not intermittent 

 but continuous. Volumes of the fusion were constantly ascending and descending like a 

 jet d'eau. The force which expelled these igneous columns from the orifice, shivered them 

 into millions of fragments of unequal size, some of which would be rising, some falling, 

 some shooting off laterally, others describing graceful curves ; some moving in tangents, and 

 some falling back in vertical lines into the mouth of the crater. Every particle shone with 

 the brilliancy of Sirius, and all kinds of geometrical figures were beitig formed and broken 

 up. No tongue, no pen, no pencil can portray the beauty, the grandeur, the terrible sub- 

 limity of the scene. To be appreciated it must be felt. . . . During the night the scene 

 surpassed all power of description. Vast columns of lava at a white-heat shot up continuously 

 in the ever-varying forms of pillars, pyramids, cones, towers, turrets, spires, minarets, etc. 

 While the descending showers poured in one incessant cataract of fire upon the rim of the 

 crater down its burning throat, and over the surrounding area, — each falling avalanche con- 

 taining matter enough to sink the proudest ship. A large fissure opening through the lower 

 rim of the crater gave vent to the molten flood which constantly poured out of the orifice, and 

 rolled down the mountain in a deep, broad river, at the rate, probably, of ten miles an hour. 

 This fiery stream we could trace all the way down the mountain until it was hidden 

 from the eye by its windings in the forest, a distance of some thirty miles. The stream 

 shone with great brilliancy in the night, and a long horizontal drapery of light hung 

 over its whole course. But the great furnace on the mountain was the all-absorbing 

 object. 



" March 6. The fire has not yet reached the shore, and it may not. It is winding in 

 the woods, filling our atmosphere with smoke, and sending down showers of ashes, charred 

 leaves, etc. The great furnace in the mountain is still in terrible blast. No decrease of 

 activity, but rather an increase." 



