360 Journal of Travel a?id Natural History 



THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE AT HAWAII^ 



HAVING had an opportunity of seeing the effects of the late 

 volcanic concussions and eruptions in South Hawaii, 

 I send you a short description of what I observed. Unfortunately 

 I arrived too late on the spot to see the eruption itself which 

 only lasted four days; but I had good opportunities to investi- 

 gate the effects produced. 



Kilanea had been occasionally active ever since October of last 

 year. Instead of one or two there were seven lakes in constant 

 ebullition, and volumes of steam and gases were thrown off con- 

 stantly. The lava would often overflow the banks of the lakes, 

 and cover a great portion of the area of the large crater. 



On the 27th of March the first shock was felt over all Southern 

 Hawaii, the region of Mowna Roa. On the 28th one hundred and 

 fifty shocks were counted. On the early morning of the 29th 

 lava was seen flowing on the summit of Mowna Roa, according to 

 native report, and also on the night following, but not at any time 

 after. The earthquakes continued, many very severe, to the num- 

 ber of two hundred in twenty-four hours, up to April 2, while the 

 fire in Kilanea seemed to rest. 



On April 2, at 4 p.m., a most terrific shock occurred, which was 

 felt here in Honolulu, and laid prostrate, or threw off their founda- 

 tion, all walls and most houses in Kau. All the fissures described 

 in my report were produced then, amongst which that most extra- 

 ordinary one which split the side of the mountain, and sent down 

 to the level plain an enormous mass of dirt and water, the mud 

 flow of Kapapala. 



The great stellated fissures in Kataka, through which, five days 

 later, the lava broke, must also have been first opened by this 

 shock. Immediately after it the sea receded, and soon returned 

 in an enormous wave, forty to fifty feet high, which ran over the 

 tops of the cocoanut palms, and swept away every village on the 

 southern coast, destroying about sixty lives, and disabling many a 

 poor fellow. Fifteen or twenty times the sea receded, and returned 

 again before it resumed its equilibrium. As we learn from Cali- 



* Letter from Dr liildcbraiulc, Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, to Dr Hooker, 

 F.KS. 



