766 Trails ACTIONS of the American Institute. 



Earthquakes in tite S.vxD^vicn Islands. 



Tlie following account of tlie late earthquake at tlie Sandwich 

 Islands is from the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, of IIonLtlulu, 

 edited and published by Dr. "William Hill ebrand, who, in connection 

 with Mr. A. Fornander, late editor of the Polynesian, made the 

 observations here given. • 



TVe left Ivealakeakua bay on the morning of the 9th of April, and 

 after a slow, tedious ride of twenty-seven miles over lava clinkers, 

 reached Kapua towards night, where we slept in a thatch house, built 

 by Mr. Charles N. Spencer as an accommodation house, it being just 

 half way between the bay and Waiohinu, and distant from the lava 

 flow about thirteen miles. During the night we could hear the dis- 

 tant noise of the eruption, a peculiar rumbling so different from the 

 roar of the sea or any otlier noise, that to wake up in the night and 

 listen to its unaccountable utterances tended to create fear with those 

 who for tlie first time heard it. In the morning several of the pjirty 

 decided to turn back to Ivealakeakua, and returned without seeing 

 the grand sight before us. The others, seven in number, not count- 

 ing native attendants, mounted horses and proceeded on to the flow. 



As we approached it the rumbling noise became more and more 

 distinct, and the evidences of approach to some great disturbance of 

 nature more frequent. The ground was covei'ed with what appeared 

 to be cinders, but on examining them we found they were fragments 

 of pumice stone which had been carried by the wind a distance of 

 over ten miles. Mixed with these cinders was Pele's hair, which we 

 found floating in the air, and when it was thick we had to hold our 

 handkerchiefs to our nostrils to prevent inhaling it. Our clothes were 

 frequently covered with it. On reaching an eminence five miles from 

 the stream, we found a group of forty or fifty natives, who were 

 waiting to cross over to Kau, and had been here several. days. From 

 this point dense clouds of smoke could be seen rising all along the 

 course of the lava stream, from the mountain side to the sea. 



We hurried on and reached the flow shortly after noon, where, 

 from a ridge to the west of it, the whole scene opened before 

 us. Between ik and the crater Avas a valley 500 yards wide and 

 ten miles long, which had recently been overflowed throughout* its 

 entire width and length from the mountain to the sea, where it 

 widened to two or three miles. The lava was of the smooth jpaJwehoe 

 variety, from ten to twenty feet deep, and partially cooled over, 

 though flames, smoke and gas escaped from numerous crevices. We 



