56(3 W. T. BRIGHAM ON THE RECENT 



yet observed this. In Kona the shocks were severe, but less so than in Ka-u ; at Koh^la 

 they did very little damage, not even injuring the tall chimney of the Kohiila sugar-mill; 

 while at Hilo, on the other side of the mountains, the violence of the vibrations was about 

 the same as in Kona. The mountains seem to have deadened the shock, and simply trans- 

 mitted it through their solid cones to the axes of the other islands of the group, where the 

 shock of April "2d was felt as a vibration from the central mountain to the sea. This was 

 the case even in Kauai, nearly three hundred miles distant from the supposed seismic ver- 

 tical. No damage was done except in these southern districts of Hawaii, where the undu- 

 lations seemed to bend around the base of the mountain, forcing the isoseismic curves far 

 from the meizoseismic curve in Ka-u. 



At Hilo, although the shock was not so severe as at Waiohinu, more damage was done, 

 for the houses were both larger and more numerous. A correspondent writes : " I was 

 coming from the tannery to my store, when I heard a loud rumbling noise like a number of 

 iron carriages drawn over a rough road by wild horses. Soon the shock came. The horses 

 in the pasture took fright, and ran and snorted, the dogs howled, and the pigeons flew about 

 as if somebody had been shooting at them. The shock lasted a good while, how long I can- 

 not say, but long enough to make me feel sea-sick, and it was with difficulty that I could 

 stand. All the stone walls about the town were flat." Fissures opened, and the brooks ran 

 mud ; in one place a fissure opened about a foot, and when it closed the two sides were sev- 

 eral inches from coincidence. 



The land-slide referred to by Mr. Lyman, is well described by the Rev. T. Coan, whose 

 letter will be given presently. The most destructive feature of the whole catastrophe, how- 

 ever, was the sea-wave which swept the shores of Hawaii from Kahuku to Kapoho, and was 

 sensibly felt at the most distant shores of the group. At Hilo the sea receded a hundred 

 and fifty or two hundred feet, and when it returned rose about ten feet above high water- 

 mark. Along the shore between Kapoho and Kalae, villages were swept awa}^, and even 

 heavy stone houses disappeared before the destroying waves. 



The earth continued to vibrate, but the shocks were not very severe until on Tuesday 

 night, April 7th, lava broke out in Kahuku, and flowed some ten miles into the sea. The 

 exact locality of this flow was afterwards determined by Mr. Coan. 



The schooner " Oddfellow " was cruising along the coast of Hilo, Puna, and Ka-u, about 

 the time of the sea-wave and the eruption, and from the report of a passenger the following 

 notes are extracted. As she touched at many points, the information is of considerable in- 

 terest. 



" Saturday, March 28. Lakes in Kilauea active. Portion of the southwest cliff thrown 

 down. Sunday, 29. Shakes frequent, but slight ; one of them very peculiar in its motion, 

 commencing from northwest to southeast, shook a moment, and then shifted to northeast 

 and southwest. North lake quite active. Shocks appear to have been stronger on the 

 beach at Keauhou than they were at the volcano. Thursday, April 2. Severe shock at 

 Hilo. Keauhou and other villages in the neighborhood swept away. Friday, 3. Shocks 

 very violent in Kilauea. Fire in Poli-o-Keawe, the south lake terribly active, and enlarg- 

 ing rapidly. Saturday, 4. Saw fire on the hills at Kapoho ; could not tell whether it was 

 a lava flow or not. Sunday, 5. Made Kealakomo, Puna, at daylight. The houses nearest 

 the beach gone ; the same at Kahue. All swept clean at Apua. Reached Keauhou, Ka-u, at 

 seven a. m., and anchored. Found the anchorage and boat-landing all right. Every building, 



