ERUPTION OF THE HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES. 585 



a mile upon its crackling surface. We soon carne to a region of fissures and blow-holes, 

 and where the evidences of Plutonic fury were unmistakable. From these infernal orifices 

 amazing jets had been thrown hundreds of feet heavenwards, forming ridges, hills, and 

 jagged cones of every contour, and leaving the products of raging seas and rivers of fire, 

 such as must have been appalling to a near witness of these fiery dynamics. Here we left 

 our horses, and with great effort struggled over the sharp and confused masses which were 

 heaped wildly around. Climbing a rough hill-side some two hundred feet high, and on an 

 angle of 45°, we came upon the great head fissure from which the first lavas were disgorged. 

 We followed this to its terminal point in the woods, over ridges and heaps of cinder, pum- 

 ice [liniu], and scoria. From this high terrace we could overlook the stream below for 

 about three miles. The great vent or fissure extended longitudinally and in an irregular 

 line for two and a half miles or more, and at many points along this line steam and smoke 

 were still rising with no little heat. No fire was, however, seen ; it all disappeared in less 

 than four days after the commencement of the eruption. The fissure opened from two to 

 twenty feet wide, and there are places, where it is interrupted, or so narrow that it can 

 be crossed. 



" Near the head of this fissure a small quantity of sulphur is found, as also alum, gypsum, 

 Glauber's and other salts ; none of these are abundant, and the products of this eruption 

 are identical with those of all former eruptions on this island. Returning to the point 

 whence I had sent men to line across the stream, I regretted to find that they had meas- 

 ured until they came to the great fissure, and seeing no way of crossing it, had returned. 

 They had measured half a mile, and thought they were half-way across, but from sight I 

 judged they were only one third across, giving a mile and a half as the estimated width at 

 this point, which was about the widest place of the undivided or trunk stream. I would 

 say that the average width of the flow by uniting all the branches would be one and a half 

 miles, the length ten miles, and the average depth fifteen feet. Where it entered deep ba- 

 sins and gorges it is fifty to a hundred feet deep, but where it spread over grass fields and 

 unbroken surfaces, we find it from two to fifteen feet deep. The course of the main stream, 

 the one that entered the sea, is due south. The flow upon the surface was short and ener- 

 getic, some say three and some five days, — we give it as four days. The scene was brilliant 

 and awe-inspiring ; obstructions along the line of flow often opened vents through which 

 fiery jets were thrown up to the height of five hundred to seven hundred feet, with amaz- 

 ing brilliancy and a force which made the earth tremble. All the southern coast of Hawaii 

 was illuminated with the dazzling glare : but the amount of matter discharged is small com- 

 pared with the eruption of 1855. 



" Having spent the whole day in laborious examination of the lava streams, we returned 

 to Waiohinu after sunset. This eruption is of easy access ; one can ride on its eastern 

 margin all the way from its entrance into the sea to within a quarter of a mile of the 

 points of outbreak at the head, and the four lateral arms can be examined at leisure as 

 they lie like so many black serpents upon the open grazing land and cultivated fields." 



Kilauea. " In going to Ka-u my route was along the shore road through Puna ; my re- 

 turn was via Kilauea. At this place I spent a clay and a night, and examined the changes. 

 Previous to the great earthquake, the fiery abysses of Kilauea had been in a raging condition, 

 as if seeking vent. The molten sea had broken up vertically in the bottom of Little Kilauea 



MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. Vol. I, Pt. 4. 147 



