Eruption at Kahitkit. 115 



green hills looked as if a gigantic cultivator had been driven down their sides, tearing off the sward 

 and exposing the soil in wide parallel grooves, and leaving broad belts of vegetation resembling rows 

 of sugar cane. In passing from Waiohinu to Kahuku, we started a little after sunrise and rode 

 westward. About three miles from Waiohinu we crossed a lateral arm of the eruption, about 

 one-sixteenth of a mile wide, and some two miles long, from where it left the parent stream. It was 

 a high ridge of aa, say twenty-five feet deep, and running in a southeasterly direction. Crossing 

 this and riding half a mile over verdant and beautiful fields, we come to another lateral outgush of 

 similar character, and dimensions. Then came a third, which flowed some four miles and threatened 

 to fill the harbor of Kaalualu. This was longer and broader than the other two, but of the same 

 general character. After another half mile we crossed a fourth rugged stream of aa, and then moving 

 southwest we rode rapidly over a fine surface of soil down a slope of about 3° to the ends of the two 

 large parallel streams that entered the sea at Kailikii. Over all this wide field of pasturage, cinder 

 and pumice had been scattered, and the grass had been consumed as by a prairie fire. 



This portion of the eruption went into the sea about one mile northwest of Ka Lae, the south 

 cape of the island. On the left flank of the stream is a high and very steep ridge (four hundred to 

 five hundred feet high), extending from the cape up the southern slope of Mauna Loa. The outburst 

 of April 7th commenced about ten miles from the sea by the opening of a horrid fissure in the forest 

 on the upper side of this precipice. For about three miles the burning river flowed down partly above 

 and partly below this precipice. The area above was rich and beautiful land for cultivation and 

 pasturage; that below was simply pahoehoe. The four lateral streams before mentioned all ran 

 off upon the beautiful highlands, covering several thousand acres, but without reaching the sea. 

 Some three miles from the head the main stream went altogether over the precipice, and pursued 

 its rapid course over the pahoehoe some seven miles to the sea which it reached in two hours. There 

 it formed, as is usual when lava streams enter the sea, two cones of lava sand, or lava shivered into 

 millions of particles by coming in contact with water while in an intensely heated state. There is 

 no island there and there is nothing but what is common under similar circumstances. This stream 

 is about half a mile wide, and it entered the sea some three-fourths of a mile from the high pali 

 before spoken of. After running a day or two, in this channel, partial obstructions occurred, by 

 cooling masses, when the shell of the stream was tapped some five miles from the sea, and a torrent 

 of white-hot lava pushed out on the east side, running off to the great precipice and following its 

 base in a breadth of half a mile down to the sea, and thus forming an island five miles long and a 

 quarter of a mile wide, surrounded on three sides by fire. Three houses stand unscathed on this 

 islet, and about thirtj- head of cattle were inclosed by the igneous flood. 



The route taken by this lava flow was substantially that of a stream of unknown 

 date, but whose smooth surface of hard pahoehoe looks fresh and undecomposed. 

 Where this ancient stream originated is not known, for no one has ever taken the 

 trouble to trace up tlie various flows tbat radiate like the spokes of a wbeel from the 

 cone of Mauna Loa.'*'' The pali referred to was probably formed by the subsidence of 

 the ground over which the successive streams of lava have flowed, and it forms the 

 boundary of a fine pasture land, which appears to have been exempt from these lava 

 inundations for man}^ ages ; the outcropping ledges of lava are weathered and lichen- 

 covered until they resemble the gneiss and granite rocks of New England, at least 

 from a distance. 



''It will be .seen from the map of this island that the government survey has done much in tracing the flows of 

 known date, but much remains to be done, although it is probably impossible to fully trace other than the super- 

 ficial flows. [493] 



