Proceedings of the Polytechnic Association./^ .TKr" 



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pottery odor, when we saw it first on April 20, but peiSebt^ clear >, -'''^~-. 



and inodorous when we passed it three days later. A litt^ higher "-^/i ^ 



up a koa grove gives still stronger evidence to the strength bC^tltey'^ / 



propelling force. The trees first seized are snapped off and prostrate, 



3'et the mud in tliat place is only a few feet deep. The mass itself is 



nothing but the loose red soil of the mountain side, with a good 



sprinkling of round boulders, with here and there stumps of trees, 



ferns, hapuu and amaumau and eiitire lehua trunks. Near the lower 



end a vigorous, healthy taro plant stood erect in the mud, as if it had 



been planted there. From its sides protruded portions of the l)odies 



of many cattle and goats, overwhelmed in their flight ; a gain of one 



second in time might have saved them. The surface of the mud in 



this lower course was rather smootli, as if it had been forced down 



by the agency of water, and it was still so soft that the feet sank 



deep into it. 



After we had flanked it for some distance along the side of the hill 

 tiie mud became solid enough to bear our weight, and we walked 

 upon it to the head of the pali. The surface gradually became more 

 rough; the boulders increased, and detached portions of earth and 

 stone were scattered beyond its borders, which also flattened out 

 gradually. The ascent soon became steep, and here, on a short spur, 

 just in the middle of the mud, stands a native house on an island of 

 grass and taro, flanked by two trees. A poor woman who happejicd 

 to be in it at the time of tlie outbreak escaped the awful fate which 

 doomed the remaining members of her family, and was removed from 

 her perilous situation a few days after, when the crust had become 

 solid enough to beai* a man's wcis^-ht. 



As we went on the mass became more rough and hard, tree trunks 

 and boulders increased, even angular rocks appeared, until at last the 

 mud ceased entirely and gave place to a sea of huge rocks, all angular 

 and exhibiting fresh fractures, large trunks of trees crushed between 

 and under them and streamlets of fresh, clear water meandering 

 between them. This continued for the last 300 feet of rise and 

 ended in a perpendicular wall of solid rock some twenty feet high, 

 after having climbed wliich we reposed under the refreshing shade of 

 tall fern trees, for we had entered at once the great pulu forest. 

 Seated on the trunk of a prostrate tree we could survey the whole 

 field of devastation we Ijad just traversed. Immediately at our feet 

 the rocky framework of the pali was torn up and its contents turned 

 topsy turvy in dire confusion. The rocky wall we had just climbed 



