io6 Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



During the earlj' part of April an observer in Koua kept a careful record of the 

 principal shocks felt there, but in other places no observations were made. The only 

 certain thing, among various and somewhat extravagant reports, is that the vibrations 

 were ver^- frequent and not very severe. In some places the)- were almost silent, but 

 usually accompanied by subterranean detonations and rumblings, with a noise as of 

 boiling, surging waves in the bowels of the earth. No observations were made on the 

 gases said to have been emitted from some of the fissures. 



When the eruption of lava was made known at Honolulu, many residents at 

 once set out for Hawaii, and among them a gentleman of distinguished attainments 

 in botan}'. Dr. William Hillebrand, who has given us so accurate and full an account 

 of what he saw in passing through the disturbed region that it seems worthy of a 

 more permanent record than would be its lot in the local newspaper in which it first 

 appeared. He writes as follows : 



I started from Hilo with a few friends for Kilauea April 17th; descended the crater on the 

 i8tli; examined the extensive fissures near the Puna road on the 20th; the so-called mud-flow on 

 the 2ist : and the lava streams in Kaliuku on the 23rd. On the 24th we crossed the lava stream on 

 the road to Kona, and reached Kealakeakua Bay on April 26th. 



Of Hilo I have little to say, as your correspondents have communicated to you the most 

 remarkable events from that place. I saw several fissures in the earth near Wahiawa River, of from 

 eight inches to one foot in width, which were caused by the earthquake of April 2nd, and run in the 

 direction of Mauna Loa. The earthquake waves all moved from southwest to northeast, and over- 

 turned movable objects standing at right angles with that line. A heavy book-case in the Rev. T. 

 Coan's library, holding that relation to the wave, was overturned, while another heavy case, filled 

 with shells and minerals, which stood parallel to the wave, remained standing. 



A'i/aucd. — The ground around the crater, particularly on the eastern and western sides, is 

 rent by a number of fissures, one near the Puna road more than twelve feet wide, and very deep; 

 others of lesser size run parallel to and cross the Kau road, so as to render travel on it very danger- 

 ous. The lookout house is detached from the mainland by a very deep crevasse, and stands now on 

 an isolated overhanging rock, which at the next severe concussion must tumble into the pit below. 

 Many smaller fissures are hidden by grass and bushes, forming so many traps for the unwary. The 

 Volcano House, however, has not suffered nor is the ground surrounding it broken in the least. 

 From the walls of Kilauea large masses of rock have been detached and thrown down. On the west 

 and northwest sides, where the fire had been most active before the great earthquake of April 2nd, 

 the falling mas.ses probably have been at once melted by the lava and carried off in its stream, for 

 the walls there remain as perpendicular as they were before ; but that this part of the wall has lost 

 portions of its mass, is shown too evidently by the deep crevices along the western edge just spoken 

 of, and the partial detachment in many places of large prisms of rock. But it is on the east and 

 northeast wall particularly, that the character of the crater has undergone a change. Along the 

 descent on the second ledge large masses of rock, many, more than one hundred tons in weight, 

 obstruct the path and form abutments to the stone pillars — small buttress hills similar to those ob- 

 served in front of the high basaltic wall of Koolau, Oahu. So also in the deep crater itself the east- 

 ern wall has lost much of its perpendicular dip, and has become shelving in part. 



The crater itself was entirely devoid of liquid lava ; no incandescence anywhere ; pitchy dark- 

 ness hovered over the abyss the first night. I say the first night, because during the second night 

 of our stay between twelve m. and one a.m., detonations were heard again, and light reappeared for 



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