158 NATIT^VL TTTSTORY OF HAWAII. 



subterranean, deep .-iikI iiif.M-ii;)l. First a i-iiiul)lin,y. a muttering, a hissing, a 

 deep premonitory sui-giiiir: Hkmi followed an awful explosion, like the roar of a 

 broadside in a naval battle, or the quick discharge of pack after pack of artillery 

 on the Held of carnage. Sometimes the sound resembled that of 10,000 furnaces 

 in full bla.st. Again it was like the rattling of a regiment of musketry; and 

 sometimes like the booming of distant thunder. Th- detonations were heard 

 along the shore at Ililo. 



'•Tlie eruption was not intermittent but continuous. Volumes of the fusion 

 were constantly ascending and descending, like a jet (Veau. The force which 

 expelled these igneous eolunnis from the orifice shivered them into millions of 

 fragments of une<iual size, some of which woidd be rising, some falling, some 

 shooting olf laterally, others describing graceful curves; some moving in tangents, 

 and some falling back in vertical lines into the mouth of the crater. Every 

 particle shown with the bi-illianey of Sirius and all kinds of geometrical figures 

 were being i'orini'd and broken up. No tongue, no pen, no pencil can portray 

 the l)eauty. the grandeur, the terrible sublimity of the scene. 



"To l)e appreciated, it must be felt. * * * * Durin-' the night the scene 

 surpassed all powers of description. Vast eolunnis of lava at a white heat shot 

 up continuouslx in the ever- varying forms of ])illars. pyramids, cones, towers, 

 turrets, spires, minerets, etc., while th(^ descemling showers poured in one in- 

 cessant cataract of fire u])()n the rim of the crater down its Inirning throat and 

 over the surrounding areas; each falling avalanche containing matter enough to 

 sink- the proudest ship. A large fissure opening through the rim of tlie crater 

 gave vent to the molten flood which constantly ])oured out of the orifice and 

 i-olled down the mountain in a deep, broad river, at the rate probably of ten 

 miles an hour. This fiery stream we could trace all the way down the mountain 

 until it was hidden from our eyes by its windings in the forest, a distance of 

 some thirty miles. The sti'eam shown with a great brilliancy by night, and a 

 horizontal dra])ery of light hung over its whole course. But the great furnace 

 on the mountain was the all-absorbing object." 



Three years later, in August, 1855, and continuing for sixteen months, oc- 

 curred the greatest flow of the century. The {)oint of emergence was at an 

 elevation of 12,000 feet on the northeast side of the mountain, and the molten 

 river took a course directly for llilo. After fifteen or sixteen months of con- 

 tinuous flowing-, during which the flood advanced at about a mile each w(H'k, tlie 

 erui)tion came gradually to an end, having sent a stream of lava for a distance 

 of many miles down the mountain side, that in places was eight miles in width 

 at the widest part. As its lower end came within five miles of Hilo the (luiet 

 village was greatly alarmed, but fortunately no damage was done. 



In 1859 activity shifted to the northwestern side of the mountain. A flow 

 started on January 23d at an elevation of 10,500 feet, that came down to the 

 sea on the northwest coast in two branches, at a point just north of Kiholo. 

 On January 81st the stream had reached the sea, miu-e than thirty-three miles 

 in a direct line from its source — the first eruption in historic times from a liiuh- 



