ERUPTION OF THE HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES. 571 



" I started from Hilo with a few friends for Kilauea, April 17th ; descended the crater on 

 the 18th ; examined the extensive fissures near the Puna road on the 20th ; the so-called 

 mud-flow on the 21st ; and the lava stream in Kahuku on the 23d. On the 24th we 

 crossed the lava stream on the road to K6na. and reached Kealakeakua Bay on April 2Gth. 



" Of Hilo, I have little to say, as your correspondents have communicated to you the 

 most remarkable events from that place. I saw several fissures in the earth near Wahiawa 

 River, of from eight inches to one foot in width, which were caused by the earthquake of 

 April 2d, and run in the direction of Mauna Loa. The earthquake waves all moved from 

 southwest to northeast, and overturned movable objects standing at right angles with that 

 line. A heavy book -case in the Rev. T. Coan's library, holding that relation to the wave, was 

 overturned, while another heavy case, filled with shells and minerals, which stood parallel to 

 the wave, remained standing. 



" Kilauea. The ground around the crater, particularly on the eastern and western sides, 

 is rent by a great number of fissures, one near the Puna road more than twelve feet wide, 

 and very deep ; others of lesser size run parallel to and cross the Ka-u road, so as to render 

 travel on it very dangerous. The lookout house is detached from the main land by a very 

 deep crevasse, and stands now on an isolated, overhanging rock, which at the next severe 

 concussion must tumble into the pit below. Many smaller fissures are hidden by grass and 

 bushes, forming so many traps for the unwary." It will be seen by reference to Plate XV, 

 that the northern bank, on which the lookout hut was built, and where these fissures have 

 opened, is much lower than the western walls, and than the ridge on the east where the 

 Volcano House now stands ; that it has either been at some time the actual bed of the crater, 

 or has been depressed in a body, suffering from this change of level, or as seems more 

 probable, by commotions like the present, the great dislocations which are indicated on the 

 plan as steam cracks. It will also be seen that the usual path into the crater passes over a 

 portion of the wall which has been much disturbed. This is referred to by Dr. Hillebrand 

 below. 



" The Volcano House, however, has not suffered, nor is the ground surrounding it broken 

 in the least. From the walls of Kilauea, large masses of rock have been detached and 

 thrown down. On the west and northwest sides, where the fire had been most active, before 

 the great earthquake of April 2d, the falling masses probably have been at once melted by 

 the lava and carried off in its stream, for the walls there remain as perpendicular as they 

 were before ; but that this part of the wall has lost portions of its mass, is shown too 

 evidently by the deep crevices along the western edge just spoken of, and the partial 

 detachment in many places of large prisms of rock. But it is on the east and northeast 

 wall particularly, that the character of the crater has undergone a change. Along the 

 descent on the second ledge large masses of rock, many, more than one hundred tons in 

 weight, obstruct the path and form abutments to the stone pillars — small buttress hills 

 similar to those observed in front of the high basaltic wall of Koolau, Oahu. So also in the 

 deep crater itself the eastern wall has lost much of its perpendicular dip, and has become 

 shelving in part. 



" The crater itself was entirely devoid of liquid lava ; no incandescence anywhere ; pitchy 

 darkness hovered over the abyss the first night. I say the first night, because during the 

 second night of our stay, between twelve m. and one a. m. detonations were heard again, and 

 light reappeared for a short time in the south lake [Halemaumau]. White vapors of steam 



