70 



fCilattea and Mauna Loa. 



Mr. Coau, it will be seen, struck the flow at a point above the terminns and 

 followed it to its sonrce. On his return he determined to cut through the forest and 

 meet the stream. Following a branch of the Wailuku in a drenching rain which 

 made the river almost impassable, he thus describes the scene:" 



So soon as we entered this stream we found it discolored with p\ roligneous acid from burning 

 wood, whose odor and lustre became more and more positive the further we advanced up the stream. 

 The discoloration also became more apparent as we proceeded, until the water was almost black. 

 This showed that the lava-flow had crossed the head waters of the stream and its small tributaries, 

 consuming the forest and jungle, and sending down what could not be evaporated of the juices to 

 mingle with the stream. 



A little before sundown our guide led us at right angles from the stream we had been thread- 

 ing for six hours, and in a few minutes the fires of the volcano glared upon us through the woods. 

 We were within six rods of the awful flood which was moving sullenly along on its mission towards 

 Hilo. Thrusting our poles into the lava, we stirred it, and dipped it up like pitch, taking out the 

 boiling mass, and cooling all the specimens we desired. We were on the right or southern verge of 

 the stream, and we also found that we were about two miles above its terminus, where it was glow- 

 ing with intense radiance anil pushing its molten flood into the dense forest which still disputed its 

 passage to the sea. We judged the stream to be two or three miles wide at this point, and over all 

 this expanse, and as far as the eje could see above, and down to the enil of the river, the whole sur- 

 face was dotted with countless fires, both mineral and vegetable. Immense trees which had stood 

 for hours, or for a day, in this molten sea, were falling before and below us, while the trunks of those 

 previously prostrated were burning in great numbers upon the surface of the lava. 



You are aware that the great fire-vent on the mountain discharges its floods of incandescent 

 minerals into a suljterranean pipe which extends at a depth of from fifty to two hundred feet, down 

 the side of the mountain. Under this arched passage the boiling lava hurries down with awful speed 

 until it reaches the plains below. Here the fusion spreads out under a black surface of hardened 

 lava some six or eight miles wide, depositing immense masses which stiffen and harden on the way. 

 Channels, however, winding under this stratified stratum, conduct portions of the lava down to the 

 terminus of the stream, some sixty-five miles from its high fouiUain. Here it pushes out from under 

 its mural arch, exhibiting a fiery glow, across the whole breadth of the stream. Where the ground 

 is not steep, and where the obstructions from trees, jungle, depressions, etc., are numerous, the pro- 

 gress is ver}- slow, say one mile a week. 



On the evening of our arrival we encamped within ten feet of the flowing lava, and, as before 

 stated, on the southern margin of the stream, some two miles above its extreme lower points. Here 

 under a large tree, and on a bank elevated some three feet above the igneous flood which moved 

 before us, we kept vigils until morning. During the whole night the scene was indescribablj- bril- 

 liant and terribly sublime. The greater portion of the vast area before us was of ebon blackness, 

 and consisted of the hardened or smouldering flood which had been thrown out and deposited here 

 in a depth of from ten feet to one hundred. 



Not only was the lava, as aforesaid, gushing out at the end of this layer, but also at its sides. 

 These lateral gushings came out before and behind us, and two-thirds surrounded our camp during 

 the night, so that in the morning, when we decamped, the fusion was just five feet by measurement, 

 in front of us, six feet in our rear, and three feet, or the diameter of the trunk of our camp-tree, on 

 our left. The drenching rain and our chilled condition induced us to keep as near the fire as we 

 could bear it. Evening and morning we boiled our tea-kettle ami fried our ham upon the melted 

 lavas, and when we left, our sheltering tree was on fire. 



'^ American Journal, xxi, 237. Tlie letter is dated Nov. 16, 1855. 



[448] 



