64 



Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



sent forth by the boiling mass, which apparently was pouring forth and rolling down the side- . -During 

 the day vast volumes of smoke were constantly pouring forth, concealing everything beneath. At 

 times the smoke rose in a nearly perpendicular column, not less, as I judged, than one or two thou- 

 sand feet high. Before the close of the week the light disappeared from the upper part of the moun- 

 tain, and broke out anew near its base in the valley between it and Mauna Kea.'*^ 



The Rev. Titus Coau writes under date of February 20, 1843. ""^ After describ- 

 ing the brilliancy of the light he says : "For about four weeks this scene continued 

 without much abatement. At the 

 present time, after six weeks, the 

 action of the fire is greatly dimin- 

 ished, though it is still somewhat 

 vehement at one or two points along 

 the line of eruption. The flow of 

 the lava has probably extended 

 twenty miles." Soon after this he 

 was able to visit the scene of erup- 

 tion, and ascend the mountain, and 

 writes in a letter dated April 5: 

 "The eruption has flowed from the 

 summit of Mauna Loa to the base 

 of Mauna Kea, where it separates 

 into two broad streams, one flow- 

 ing toward Waimea, and the other 

 towards Hilo. Another great 

 stream has flowed along the base 

 of Mauna Loa towards Mauna 

 Hualalai in Kona. These streams 

 are still flowing, and the}' have 

 reached a distance of from twentj'- 

 five to thirty miles from the crater on the top of the mountain. The quantitj' of lava 

 is immense, it being many miles wide. There are two great active craters in close 

 coutiguitj' near the summit. Lava does not flow from the.se craters now; it is con- 

 veyed down the side of the mountain in a subterranean dttct from fifty to a hundred 

 feet below the surface, at the rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour."^'' Soon after 

 this visit the flow ceased. Mr. Coan threw stones into the stream as it appeared through 

 the openings in the crust, and they did not sink but were instantly carried along out 

 of sight. Mounds, ridges and cones were thrown up along the lava stream, and from 



•"Missionary Herald, xxxix, p. 3W1. -"Ibid, 463. *'" Missionary Herald, xl. 44. 



[442] 



$000 1» 



FIG. 49. WII.KES' SrRVKV OF MOKUAWEOWEO, 184I. 



