568 w - T - BRIGHAM ON THE RECENT 



perpendicular wall of miles in height. On the east it was ill-defined. Above, it often spread 

 out, especially toward the east, as if borne off by the southeast wind of the upper air. The 

 base, so far as visible, appeared to be commingled with murky brown strata. 



" The apparent altitude of this cumulus above the horizon, when at its highest was 3° 30', 

 which, reduced for a base of 120 miles with 500 feet altitude of the point of observation, 

 gives a height of 7.8 miles. This morning, the 9th, our atmosphere is charged with smoky 

 haze, and a very distinct odor of sulphurous acid." 



At Kapapala, on the 7th, the ground was still in violent agitation, with a long undulatory 

 motion. At night a very large flow of lava was seen running down the mountain to the 

 sea. The next day smoke was seen issuing from fissures in this neighborhood. 



Mr. H. M. Whitney visited the scene of the eruption on the 10th, and from him we learn 

 the following particulars : " As we approached the flow the rumbling noise became more and 

 more distinct. The ground was covered witli what appeared to be cinders, but on examining 

 them we found they were fragments of [basaltic] pumice-stone which had been carried by 

 the wind a distance of over ten miles. Mixed with these cinders was Pete's hair, which we 

 found floating in the air, and when it was thick we had to hold our handkerchiefs to our 

 nostrils to prevent inhaling it ; our clothes were frequently covered with it. We hurried on 

 and reached the flow shortly after noon, when from a ridge to the west of it the whole scene 

 opened before us. Between us and the crater was a valley five hundred yards wide and 

 ten miles long, which had recently been overflowed throughout its entire widtli and length 

 from the mountain to the sea, where it widened to two or three miles. The lava was of 

 the smooth or pahoehoe variety, from ten to twenty feet deep, and partially cooled over, 

 though flames, smoke, and gas escaped from numerous crevices. On Tuesday afternoon, 

 April 7th, at five o'clock, a new crater, several miles lower down than that referred to, 

 and about two miles back of Captain Brown's residence, burst out. The lava stream 

 commenced flowing down the beautiful grass-covered plateau, towards and around the 

 farm-house, and the inmates had barely time to escape with the clothes they had on; 

 the path by which they escaped was covered with lava ten minutes after they passed 

 over it. 



"On ascending the ridge we found the eruption in full blast. Four enormous fountains, 

 on a line a mile long, north and south, were continually spouting up from the opening. 

 These jets were blood-red and yet as fluid as water, ever varying in size, bulk, and height. 

 Sometimes two would join together, and again the whole four would be united, making one 

 continuous fountain a mile in length. From the lower end of the crater, a stream of very 

 liquid, boiling lava flowed out and down the plateau, a distance of two or three miles, then 

 following the road ran down the precipice at an angle of about 30°, then along the foot of 

 the pali or precipice, five miles to the sea, the stream being about eight or ten miles in 

 length, and in some places half a mile wide. One peculiarity of the spouting was that the 

 lava was ejected with a rotary motion, and as it ascended both lava and stones rotated 

 always in one direction towards the south. This was the only stream which reached the 

 sea, and flowed into it at Kailikii. It lasted only five days, the eruption ceasing entirely on 

 the night of the 11th or morning of the 12th. During its continuance, the atmosphere was 

 filled with smoke so dense that the sun appeared like a ball of fire, and the whole island 

 was shrouded in darkness. This smoke came from the rent or crater, and was highly 

 charged with sulphur. 



