Eruption of Manna Loa in iS^g. 



75 



breaking up of the whole surface with intense ebullition.'"" In 1862 the lava pool had 

 increased to six hundred feet in diameter. Within the central depression there was, 

 a quarter of a mile from the pool, a driblet cone of remarkable form with turrets which 

 Mr. Coan called the Cathedral, and which, two years after, I found a very convenient 

 object in ni}' survey of the crater, as it was visible from the entire outer rim. In October, 

 1863, Mr. Coan reported an awakening in Halemaumau and indeed all around the 

 crater.''' We must now look at Manna Loa. A letter from Prof. R. C. Haskell, of 

 Oahu College, gives the following account of the important eruption of 1859:'"* 



Our party consisted of Prof. E.G. Beckwith, Prof. 

 W. D. Alexander and myself, with some students of 

 the college. The eruption broke out on the 23d of 

 January. No earthquake was felt in any part of the 

 island at the time, but dead fish were noticed on the 

 2ist and a few days afterwards, to the east of Molo- 

 kai, and between Molokai and Oahu. The fish gave 

 no evidence of disease, but seemed to have been par- 

 boiled. At Honolulu, two hundred miles from the 

 eruption, the atmosphere was exceedingly thick and 

 hazy. So much was this the case that it caused con- 

 .siderable excitement, before the news of the eruption 

 arrived. 



Rev. Lorenzo Lyons, of Waimea, states that on 

 Sunday afternoon, January 23, smoke was seen 

 gathering on Mauna Loa. In the evening lava spout- 

 ed up violently near the top of the mountain on the 

 north side, and apparently flowed both towards Hilo 

 and towards the west side of the island. This con- 

 tinued but a few minutes, when at a point consider- 

 ably farther below the top, and farther we.st, another 

 jet spouted up. Accounts from Hilo say, that on the 

 night of the 23d, it was so light there that fine print could be read without difiiculty. After the 23d 

 the light was much less. At Lahaina, more than one hundred miles distant, the whole heavens 

 in the direction of the eruption were lighted up. 



Our party started from Honolulu, February ist, and reached Kealakeakua on the 3d. Here we 

 learned that the stream from the eruption had reached the sea on the 31st of January, at Wainanalii, 

 about forty [sixty] miles from the place of eruption. This makes the average progress of the stream 

 above five [seven] miles per day. After procuring guides, natives, pack-oxen and mules, we started 

 for the source of the flow on the 5th. About noon we had a view of the source, distant from us, 

 probably, twenty-five miles in an air-line. The crater was about one hundred and fifty feet high, 

 and two hundred feet in diameter (as we afterwards estimated) . From within this crater liquid lava 

 was spouting up to the height of three or four hundred feet above the top. In shape and movement 

 it resembled a might}- fountain or jet of water, though more inconstant. At one moment it was un- 

 commonly high and quite narrow at the top, at the next not so high but very broad. At night, and 

 from a good position near, the view of the jet, according to Mr. Faudre}- (the only man who reached 

 the crater while the jet was spouting), was grand beyond all description. 



"Anier. Jouni., xxvii, 411. Letter of Feb. 3, 1859. ''•'Ibid, xxxvii, 415. Letter of Oct. 6, 1S63. 



'^Ibid, XXXV, 296. Letter of Nov. 13, 1862. [4S3l 



Fig. 50. 



THE CATHEDRAL FROM WEST .\ND 

 NORTHWEST. 



