I therefore can contribute nothing to your purposes. But 

 when I have such an opportunity to come and listen to 

 such discussions I like to take advantage of it. 



If I shall not be occupying too much of your time, 

 Mr. President, I will give an account of my visit to the 

 volcano of Mauna-Loa during the eruption of 1859, for 

 the most illiterate savage can describe what ho has seen. 

 The lava flowed through a tortuous course of forty miles 

 in length. I procured the services of two natives with 

 their boat to take me to the place where it emptied into 

 the sea. On arriving near the place the scene bccatno 

 one of the utmost grandeur. There was no moon, but 

 the stars shone with that brightness which is never seen 

 outside of, the tropics. There was a light and pleasant 

 breeze. The space Avhich the lava occupied, as it de- 

 scended into the sea, was three miles in width ; that is to 

 say, not in an unbroken line, but pouring in, sometimes 

 at one end, sometimes at the other, and again in the mid- 

 dle. The lava cools on the surface quickly and ilssumcs a 

 dark lead color, but where it is hot and flowing, or where 

 this crust is broken through, it shows a beautiful scarlet 

 or blood-red color. As the lava flows slowly along it 

 meets with obstructions and resisting forces which for a 

 time create a barrier ; but after a while having risen higher 

 than the obstruction, it overflows, and finally carries away 

 the debris and bears it along in, its course, Avhcre it tum- 

 bles over, sometimes from a considerable height, a mass 

 of lava, earth and stone; and, with a loud hissing noise, 

 accompanied by a scries of explosions like the rattling 

 of small arms along a line of battle, plunges into the sea. 

 The molten lava heats the sea, so that it was appreciable 

 even at the distance 1 was, not less than a mile away. I 

 endeavored to induce the men to take the boat nearer, 

 but- nothing that I could offer prevailed upon them to 

 do so. This reluctance arose partly from tlieir supersti- 



