74 Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



of lava is now flowing more than sixty miles longitudinally under its own refrigerated cover; but 

 I may be mistaken. No fire is seen anywhere except at the end of the stream. Here it still pushes 

 out and spreads and heaps with little abatement, while the great mountain furnace sends up large 

 and continuous volumes of smoke. ''' 



To this exceedingly full and minute account, I need onlj- add that I visited in 

 1865 the terminus of the stream, where it ceased to flow, and found the whole appear- 

 ance of the stream in strict accordance with Mr. Coan's account. The surface was 

 horribly rough and piled with slabs of hardened crust in vast ridges extending for 

 miles. I slept on the fresh lava and examined the structure minutel}', and found 

 nothing to distinguish this stream from other eruptions, except its broken condition, 

 arising from the wet soil over which it passed, which raised the surface into huge 

 blisters. Where the lava fell into the water it was shivered into coarse sand like the 

 deposit (known as "black sand") near Punchbowl in Honolulu, and as the water was 

 evaporated the pahoehoe covered the ground almost entirely and even penetrated its mass. 

 The angles down which the continuous stream of lava fell were as large as Mr. Coan 

 mentions, and the lava does not seem much more cellular here than on level ground. 



At the lowest edge of the lava-flow, I found, on the more ancient rock, rounded 

 masses of red earth (ferruginous oxides) of the consistency of putt}', and as large as 

 a man's head. They were in considerable number, and seemed to have been pushed 

 along by the lava; their softness was owing to the rain, as when dried they became as 

 hard as dried potter's cla}'. The surface of the stream lava was covered with a minute 

 lichen on which great ntimbers of succineas were feeding. 



After flowing fifteen months this important eruption ceased. Professor Dana 

 still thought the lava supply came from fissures along its track, but I cannot see any 

 reason for this opinion. Mr. Coan and those who have followed in his steps are con- 

 vinced of the contrary, and the opinion of an observer with such unequaled experience 

 is worthy of great consideration. Those who have never seen a lava-flow, cannot well 

 understand its action. I believe that Mr. Coan's briefest account conveys a better 

 idea of what such a flow is than the most elaborate theorizing of those who have never 

 seen one, or who see one for the first time. 



In October, 1856, Mr. Coan reports Kilauea as declining in activity- since the 

 summit eruption began, there was but little sluggish lava in Halemaumau, but much 

 escaping vapor.''" In June, 1857, Kilauea was still quiet.'" The lava in Halemaumau 

 was a hundred feet below the brink and only five hundred feet across. In August, 1858, 

 this pool "boiled and sputtered lazily at the centre of a deep basin which occupied the 

 locality of the old dome. The action alternated between general refrigeration and a 



"American Journal, xxiii, 4S5. '"Ibid, 438. "■' Ibid, xxv, 136. 



[452] 



