14 Kilaufa and Maioia Loa. 



dogs, little less dangerous than wolves to a solitarj- footman, had taken their range. 

 Acres of an introduced purple thistle of a most luxuriant growth were foiind on our 

 path some distance below the summit. 



The only recorded eruption from this mountain took place in iSoi, and was 

 certainly not the one seen by Tiirnbull as has been stated ; his record is, "On the even- 

 ing of February i, 1803, we stood along the shore [of Hawaii] to the eastward, taking 

 the advantage of a land breeze. In this course we had a very full view of some erup- 

 tions from the volcanoes in the centre of the island of Owh^-hee."' 



The account of Ellis, taken from the lips of an Englishman and of natives, 

 is as follows : 



Stoue walls, trees, and houses all gave way before it, even large masses of rocks of hard 

 ancient lava, when surrounded by the fiery stream, soon split into small fragments, and, falling into 

 the burning mass, appeared to melt again, as borne by it down the mountain's side. Offerings were 

 presented, and many hogs thrown alive into the stream to appease the auger of the gods, by whom 

 thej' supposed it was direc5led, and to stay its devastating course. All seemed unavailing, until one 

 day the king Kamehameha, went attended by a large retinue of chiefs and priests, and, as the mo.st 

 valuable offering he could make, cut off part of his own hair, which was always considered sacred, 

 and threw it into the torrent. A day or two after, the lava ceased to flow. The gods, it was thought, 

 were satisfied. 



To this ertiption is referred the sad stor}-, often told to travelers by the natives, 

 of the death of a mother and her infant. At the beginning of the century the base of 

 Hualalai had many fishermen's hamlets along its shore. At night, while all were 

 sleeping, the eruption began. The stream of lava came thundering down upon the 

 people on the shore, and while nearly all succeeded in escaping, in one hut only the 

 husband was awakened, and in his terror he fled leaving his wife and child. Before 

 she was aroused by the shrieks of her friends, the lava had encircled the hut and escape 

 was no longer possible. The lava set fire to the house, and the woman sprang into a 

 pandanus tree near by, but her refuge was of short avail, and the lava-stream, -which 

 was flowing into the sea, consumed, as it passed, the two human sacrifices to Pele. 



The remarkable rapidity with which this stream descended indicates great 

 fluidity. It appears to have flowed fifteen miles in two or three hours, much of the way 

 through forests. Its source was a little below the summit, and it issued in two streams, 

 one to the northwest and the other to the northeast. Twenty-three years after this 

 Ellis found a warm spring at Kailua where Glauber's salts were formed by the action 

 of sulphurous vapors on sea water, and warm springs were also found at Kawaihae at 

 tide level. These are now cooled and there are no signs of volcanic activity anywhere 

 on the mountain. This latest effort of Hualalai, besides destroying several small 



'A Voyage round the World in the years 1800-1804 by John Turnljull. IvOndon, 1S13. P. 144. 



[392] 



