Mokuaiveoweo Active. 127 



to favor the idea of its being a simple 115'drostatic effect, and as though a great artesian bore had been 

 made to a stratum of molten rock, which had only been awaiting an opportunity to overflow.'" 



Miss Bird, who accompanied Mr. Green in this ascent, writes of it in her usual 

 fluent style, and Dana is inclined to quote her as authority; but from a knowledge of 

 her inaccurate and slipshod relations of other doings on these islands, I must look 

 with suspicion on her testimony, and this is not needed, as Mr. Green was with her. 

 We have seen in the Volcano House records of Messrs. Adams and the brothers 

 Hitchcock that the action continued for eighteen months, most of the time with force 

 enough to sustain jets of lava. Mr. Coau remarks that there were but few earth- 

 quakes during this period, and these of no importance. 



In Januar}' of 1875 Mr. W. L. Green reports action in Mokuaweoweo lasting 

 several weeks, and on August nth Mr. Coan reports:''' "The summit crater was again 

 in brilliant action. The action continued, as appeared in the view from Hilo, for one 

 week, and without any observed evidence of an eruption." In the Narrative of the 

 Voyage of the Challenger"' it is stated that parties from the vessel during the stay at 

 Hilo, visited Kilauea, and "ditring the ascent a globular cloud was seen hanging in the 

 air in the distance, which, as the guide explained, hung over the summit of Mauna Loa 

 itself ... .As night fell this cloud perpetualh' reformed b}- condensation, and was lighted 

 up bj- a brilliant orange glow reflected from the molten lava in the great terminal crater, 

 and the general effect was just as if a fire were raging in the forest in the distance." 



February 13, 1876, Mr. Coan reports a brilliant but short eruption on the summit, 

 but no other outbreak noted.?** On Februar}' 14, 1877, occurred another short but bril- 

 liant eruption from the summit. All the afternoon the mountain top had been covered 

 with cloud or smoke as some considered it, but at half-past nine in the evening the 

 curtain rolled awaj-, showing a bright red reflection on the dark cloud banks 

 1877 above. As seen from Hilo by Mr. Coan, "the display of light was most glori- 

 ous," columns of what Dana claims were illuminated steam, rose "with fearful 

 speed to a height of fourteen to seventeen thousand feet, and then spread out into a 

 vast fiery cloud, looking at night as if the heavens were on fire."''' From Waimea 

 Mr. Curtis J. Lyons of the Government Survey writes that the smoke masses were 



'-'Vestiges of the Molten Globe, ii, i66. On page i5.S of the same work he remarks : "With regard to incandes- 

 cent steam, which Captain Diitton suggests as possiblj' representing to the ej'e a portion of these fountains, we ma\' 

 say, that we have never seen, on Hawaii, at any of the eruptions of molten lava, anything like incandescent steam. 

 The iUHiiiiiiatcd smoke, gases, or vapors, which reflccte<l the white-hot lava below them, we saw in abundance at 

 the crater of 1859, and they are quite common at Kilauea and elsewhere ; but incandescent steam we have never 

 recognized at any of them." Captain Button had never, I believe, seen a lava fountain of any size, and found it hard 

 to believe in their entire solidity. 



'' American Journal, 1877, xiv, 68. 



"Vol. i, pt. 2, p. 766. The ship anchored in Hilo Bay August 14, and left on the 19th. 



"American Journal, 1877, ^iv, 68. 



"American Journal, 1877, xw . 68. Letter of March 17, 1877. 



[505] 



