yS Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



I will here insert some of the valuable observations of the careful observer of 

 Hawaiian volcanic action, Mr. Wni. Lowthian Green, given in his Vestiges of a Molten 

 Globe. Of the entrv of the stream of lava into the sea at Wainanalii, he saA's: 



It ran over a low shelf about ten feet high, and extended perhaps 500 or 600 feet wide, and 

 fell into the sea where it was about twentj- or thirt\' feet deep. It came from under the crust in great 

 red-hot flattened spheroidal masses, having something the appearance of masses of moderately thick 

 porridge as it is poured from a saucepan. The spheroidal masses, however, being perhaps ten feet 

 to fifteen feet wide, and four to six feet deep. There was no steam, vapor or gas whatever to be seen 

 coming from this lava till it went under water. Indeed the first contact with the red-hot spheroids 

 did not seem to produce a particle of steam, and it was only when each had gone under water and 

 become partially cooled off, that a puff of steam rose above the surface. The molten lava from this 

 1859 opening 10,000 feet up on Mauna Loa, for several months quietly ran fcvv without any visible 

 steam, noise, earthquakes or commotion of any kind. — (Part II, p. 163,) 



Again the explosions so common during the flow of lava from the Hawaiian 

 mountains, he correctly explains as follows : 



In 1859, on the evening of the day just referred to, I started with two guides — goat hunters — to 

 visit the orifice of eruption of the lava we had been observing spreading itself over the plateau between 

 the mountains Loa, Kea and Hualalai. We camped about nine o'clock on the flat between these 

 mountains close to a portion of the lava stream which was spreading itself plentifully over the ground, 

 and all night long we heard loud explosions like the reports of heavy cannon. At the time I did not 

 know the cause of them, but on my return I happened to lie close to an explosion under a stream of 

 lava, and which was evidently caused by the white-hot molten lava flowing over a hollow in one of 

 the innumerable old lava streams. It is to be observed that in this part of the mountain there is no 

 water. All the apertures of some underground cavern having been sealed up by the molten lava, it 

 is onl}' a question of time how soon an explosion of confined, highly heated air will occur. The molten 

 lava ma}' sometimes run into these caverns and so assist both the heat and compression ( Ic., p. 270). 



We have not yet exhausted all that Mr. Green can tell us of this flow, which 

 will help our understanding of all others on this island. He continues (p. 274): 



When we pitched our tent on our way to the 1859 crater, in the neighborhood of the loud 

 explosions already referred to, it being then quite dark, we had a fine view of the pillar of fire at the 

 crater on the side of the mountain fifteen miles above us, and which all day had shown as a pillar of cloud 

 or smoke. This at night became illuminated by the glare of the white-hot lake of lava in the crater. 

 We were on our way to it early next morning, and although we did not rest more than an hour dur- 

 ing the day, it was dark again when we arrived alongside the great pillar of fire which rose ten 

 thousand feet at least above our heads. We had for .some time been crunching our way over the 

 glass-foam which had evidently proceeded from the great lava fountain which had now ceased spout- 

 ing ; and close to the crater a steep escarpment appeared, up which we climbed, and when nearly 

 abreast of the centre of the crater, and a little below the level of the edge, we pitched our tent and laid 

 our blankets in a hole in a lava-bespattered crag which was partially filled with the same glass-foam. 

 This lava-fountain seemed — as I found in the ca,se of the 1868 outbreak afterwards — to have broken 

 out at the intersection of two fissures, one leading to the top of the mountain and the other more or less 

 at right angles to it. After our evening meal, I climbed over the rough lava a short distance to get 

 a good view of the scene. It was unique. From the whole interior of the crater rose the great 

 illuminated column of smoke, apparently about five hundred feet wide. The sight was grand and 



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