The Eruption of iSj:^. ^ Ji 



Mr. Coan made several attempts to cross the lava-flow, "but the hardened sur- 

 face of the stream was swelling and heaving at innumerable points b}' the accumulat- 

 ing masses and the upraising pressure of the lava below; and valves were continually 

 opening out of which the molten flood gushed and flowed in little streams on everv 

 side of us. Not a square rod could be found on all this wide expanse, where the 

 glowing fusion could not be seen under our feet through holes and cracks in the super- 

 incumbent stratum on which we were walking. The open pots and pools and streams 

 we avoided by a zigzag course; but as we advanced, these became more numerous and 

 intensely active, and the heat becoming unendurable, we again beat a retreat after 

 having proceeded some thirty rods upon the stream. It may seem strange to many, 

 that one should venture on such a fiery stream at all, but you will understand that 

 the greater part of the surface of the stream was hardened to the depth of from six 

 inches to two or three feet; that the incandescent stream flowed nearlj' under this 

 crust like water under ice, but showing up through ten thousand fissures and break- 

 ing up in countless pools. On the hardened parts we could walk, though the heat 

 was almost scorching, and the smoke and gases suffocating. We could even tread on 

 a fresh stream of lava onl^- one hour after it had poured out from a boiling cauldron, 

 so soon does the lava harden in contact with the air." 



Although the stream of lava continued to move for more than a year after in 

 parts of its course, its front became cold and fixed on the banks of the river, and a 

 merciful Providence listened to the praj-ers of the people of Hilo. 



Prof. Dana considered it most probable that a fissure had extended completely 

 down the mountain side, and that the lava issued from many vents along this line.''^ 



March 7, 1856, Mr. Coan writes: 



The great fire-fountain is still in eruption, and the terminus of the stream is only five miles 

 from the shore. The lava moves slowly along on the surface of the ground, and at points where the 

 quantity of lava is small, we dip it up with an iron .spoon held in the hand. During the last three 

 weeks the stream has made no progress toward Hilo, and we begin to hope that the supply at the 

 summit-fountain has diminished. There is, however, still much smoke at the terminal crater. You 

 will understand that the molten flood is all poured out of the fissures on the sununit and 

 18^6 for a few miles down the slope of the mountain. At first this disgorgement flowed down 



and spread wide on the surface of the mountain, as blood flows down a punctured limb. 

 This phenomenon continued until the stream had swept down some thirty miles, which it did in 

 about two days. It now came upon a place were the angle of slope was small, sa>- one degree. Here 

 its progress became slow, it spread more widely, and refrigeration was more rapid. The surface of 

 course hardened first. But this refrigerating process went deeper and deeper like the congelation 

 of water, and extended higher up the mountain, until at length all the lava was covered, except at 

 occasional vents — as heretofore described — for the escape of steam and gases. 



The process of breaking up vertically and spreading out afresh upon the hardened crust, was 

 occasioned by obstructions at the end of the stream, damming up the liquid, and thus obliging the 

 accumulating lavas to force new passages and outlets for disgorgement. In this way the stream was 



'^American Journal, xxi, 241. r44Ql 



