no Kilauea and Mauna Loa. 



sprinkling of round boulders, with here and there stumps of trees, ferns, hapuu and amaumau, and 

 entire lehua trunks. Near the lower end a vigorous, healthy taro-plant stood erect in the mud as if 

 it had been planted there. From the sides of the mass protruded portions of the bodies of many 

 cattle and goats, overwhelmed in their flight; a gain of one second of time might have saved them. 

 The surface of the mud in this lower course was rather smooth, as if it had been forced down by the 

 agency of water, and it was still so soft that the feet sank deep into it. 



After we had flanked it for some distance along the side of the hill, the mud became solid 

 enough to bear our weight, and we walked upon it to the head of the pali. The surface gradually 

 became more rough ; the boulders increased, and detached portions of earth and stone were scattered 

 beyond its borders, which also flattened out gradually. The ascent soon became steep, and here, on 

 a short spur, just iu the middle of the mud, stands a native house on an island of grass and kalo, 

 flanked by two trees. A poor woman who happened to be in it at the time of the outbreak, escaped 

 the awful fate which doomed the remaining members of her family, and was removed from her peril- 

 ous situation a few days after, when the crust had become solid enough to bear a man's weight. 



As we went on the mass became more rough and hard, tree trunks and boulders increased, 

 even angular rocks appeared, until at last the mud ceased entirely and gave place to a sea of huge 

 rocks, all angular and exhibiting fre.sh fractures, large trunks of trees crushed between and under 

 them, and streamlets of fresh, clear water meandering between them. This continued for the last 

 three hundred feet of rise, and ended in a perpendicular wall of solid rock, some twenty feet high, 

 after having climbed which, we reposed under the refreshing shade of tall fern trees, for we had 

 entered at once the great pulu forest. Seated on the trunk of a prostrate tree, we could survey the 

 whole scene of devastation we had just traversed. Immediately at our feet the rocky framework of 

 the pali was torn up, and its contents turned topsy-turvy in dire confusion. The rocky wall we had 

 just climbed, continued until it reached the sides of the two flanking hills. A perpendicular cut iu 

 the sides of the latter laid open some forty feet of red earth and conglomerate. On looking behind 

 us we saw that the rock we were resting on was separated from the mountain by a deep crevasse, 

 parallel to the wall, and only partly \isible, as it extended under the dense trees. To our left a clear 

 sparkling mountain stream leaped in a bounding cascade over the crag, and after losing its course 

 amid the maze of rocks, gathered itself again, flowing over the solid bed-rock in a deep gorge cut iu 

 the mud. This stream had existed here before, but ere it reached half down the pali, became lost 

 iu the soil. It can easily be imagined what an amount of subsoil water must have been deposited 

 here. Bearing this in mind, and the great depth of soil and conglomerate on this slope, as indicated 

 by the cuts in the hill-sides, there seems to be no great difficulty iu explaining how such enormous 

 masses of earth, at first propelled horizontally through the air, hurled down the valley by the tre- 

 mendous force which tore off the side of the mountain, should then have been seized by the propelling 

 force of the now liberated subsoil water and carried in a mighty stream far beyond the place where 

 at first they were deposited. 



All this destruction was the work of the great earthquake of April 2nd. During the five days 

 preceding it, over one thousand shocks had been counted. On that afternoon Mr. Harbottle, at 

 Reed's, with his men, was driving cattle across the hill towards Hilo, when suddenly the earth shook 

 violently and a great detonation was heard behind them. Horses and cattle turned round involuntarily. 

 The whole atmosphere before them was red and black. In a very short time this subsided — some say 

 in one minute, others in five minutes ; but a black cloud continued to hover over the scene for some 

 time. From that Thursday to Sunday the eartli constantly rocked and swayed ; the hills seemed to 

 alternately approach and recede. Most people became seasick. Strange roaring and surging noises 

 were heard under the ground. When the ear was applied to the earth it would often receive a dis- 

 tinct impression as if a subterranean wave struck against the earth's crust. The prevailing direction 

 of the earthquake waves was said to have been from northeast to southwest. 



[488] 



