March 1, 1889.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGK ♦ 



97 



\^ AN ILLUSTRATED "^^ 



MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



SIMPLY WORDED EXACTLY DESCRIBED 



LONDON: MARCH 1, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



The Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands. By W. H. Wesley 



Nitrates. By D. A. Louib, P I.C 



The Sho-Bandaj- Sau Eruption 



Pension to Mrs. R. A. Proctor 



On Changes of Public Taste in Literature. By Alex. B. MacDowall, M.A. . . 



Newspaper Statistics 



Variable *-tars in Nebulre and Nebulous Variables. By Herbert Sadler, 



F.E.A.S 



The Total Solar Kclipse of 1889. January 1. By A. C. Rauyard 



DriftinKSand. By Cecil Caru-i Wilson, F.G.S 



North American Indian Fairy Lore. By Miss Mary Proctor 



The Great Nebula in Andmmeda 



Letters : — Frances Power Cobbe, A. J. Field, Edward Pocknell, John 



Gibson 



Notices of Boots , 



Notes 



The Face of the Sky for March. By Herbert Sadler, F.R.A.S 



Our Whist Column, By W Monta?n Gattie 



()ur Chess Column. By T. Gunsltert; , 



THE VOLCANOES OF THE SANDWICH 

 ISLANDS, 



AND THEIR BEARING UPON VOLCANIC ACTION IN 

 GENERAL. 



By W. H. Wesley. 



OR many years after the discovery of Hawaii 

 by Captain Cook in 1778 the visits of 

 Europeans were few and far between, and 

 tlie interior was long considered inacces- 

 sible. Our first accurate knowledge of the 

 crater of Kilauea dates from the time of 

 _ Mr. Ellis's visit in 1823. Since then we 



have, in the accounts of travellers and 

 missionaries, sufficient material forahistory of the Hawaiian 

 volcanoes. 



The eminent American geologist, Professor J. D. Dana, 

 has lately published in the " American Journal of 

 Science," vols, xxxiii.-xxxvi., a series of papers in which he 

 has collected the accounts of all known eruptions of Mount 

 Loa and of Kilauea. He has also compared their action with 

 that of volcanoes in other parts of the world, and considered 

 the light which they throw upon the difficult problems of 

 volcanic action. 



The loftiest mountain in Hawaii is the extinct volcano 

 of Mount Kea, 13,80.5 feet; the highest active volcano (de- 

 scribed by early travellers as also extinct) is Mount Loa, 

 13,675 feet. Kilauea is situated on the western slope of 

 Mount Loa, at an altitude of 4,040 foot above the sea. 



But little is known of changes whicii may have taken 

 place in the crater, which is three miles long, on the summit 

 of Mount Loa. Since 1832 all the known outflows of lava 

 have begun at various distances below the summit. In 

 1834 Mr. D. Douglis, who was the first to ascend the moun- 

 tain, looked into the interior of the crater from its rim, 

 which he measured ius more than 1,200 feet in height, and 

 saw a desolate lava-covered plain 3^ square miles in area. 



with deep chasms from which hissing sounds proceeded, as 

 though from some great internal fire. In 1841 the crater 

 on the summit was surveyed by Captain Wilkes, who gave 

 the height of the walls as from 784 to 470 feet. 



In January 1843 one of the greatest eruptions com- 

 menced. Mr. Coan and Mr. Andrews saw a brilliant light 

 at the summit, which lasted for a week, and about 700 feet 



The Island of Hawaii. 



lower down a great discharge of lava flowed for more than 

 six weeks, extending for a distance of over twenty miles. 

 Mr. Coan found in the crusted surface of this stream many 

 large steaming openings, down which he Siiw the lavas rush- 

 ing along a tunnel-like way with awful speed some 50 feet 

 below us. " Large stones thrown on the surface were carried 

 instantly out of sight before sinking in the stream." 



A great eruption occurred in 1852 : the escaping lavas first 

 rose in a lofty fountain, which was approached by Mr. Coan 

 on its windward side within 200 feet ; he found its height 

 by angular measurement to be from 400 to 700 feet. The 

 lava ascended continuously with " a roar like that of 

 Niagara," says Mr. Kinney, another observer, who esti- 

 mated the diameter of the opening from which the fountain 

 flowed as about 1,000 feet. The lava stream in some places 

 had a depth of 200 to 300 feet. 



In 1855 Mr. Coan estimated the rate of the flow, as seen 

 from the fissures in the crusted surface of the stream, to be 

 forty miles an hour ; this may possibly have been an over- 

 estimate. But the observation was made near the source, 

 and at the front of the stream, where the lava had spread 

 over a large surface and met with many obstructions, the 

 rate was a mile a week. Owing to the cooling and the 

 partial damming of the stream along the front, the hardened 

 upper stratum was raised into numerous domes and tumuli, 

 some as much as 100 feet hiijh. Laj-er was added to layer, 

 increasing the thickness from a few feet to 50 or lOO. 

 " After flowing freely for a time, the stream sometimes cooled 

 and hardened along the front, remaining inactive for some 

 days, till at length immense areas of the solidified lava some 

 miles above the extremity were again in motion, cones were 



