778 Traxsactioxs of the American Institute. 



continued itself until it reached the sides of the two flanking hills. 

 A perpendicular cut in the side of the latter laid open some forty 

 feet of red earth and conglomerate. Looking behind us we saw that 

 the rock we were resting on was separated from the mountain by a 

 deep crevasse, parallel to the wall and only partly visible as it extended 

 under the dense trees. To our left a clear sparkling mountain stream 

 leaped in a bouncing osiscade over the crag, and after losing its course 

 amid the maze of rocks, gathered itself again, flowing over the solid 

 bed rock in a deep gorge cut in the mud. This stream had existed 

 here before, but ere it reached half down the pali became lost in the 

 soil. It can easily be imagined what an amount of subsoil water 

 must have been deposited here. Bearing this in mind and the great 

 depth of soil and conglomerate on this slope, as indicated by the cuts 

 in the hill sides, there seems to be no great difficulty to explain how 

 such enormous masses of earth, at first propelled horizontally through 

 the air, hurled down the valley by the tremendous force which tore 

 off" the side of the mountain, should then have been seized by the 

 propelling of the now liberated subsoil water and carried in a mighty 

 stream from beyond the place where at first they were deposited. 



On returning, we concluded to reach and follow the ridge of tlie 

 hill flanking^ the stream on our left. Ilavino; arrived there, we could 

 survey the extent of the land slides on the opposite side of the hill, 

 M'hich were considerable. From this place, our guide pointed out to 

 us a human figure in the distance, moving slowly over the dreary 

 field. It was a husband searching for the body of his M'ife. Our 

 guide, liimself, poor fellow, mourned the loss of a wife, two little boys 

 and both parents. All slept their long sleep under that field of deso- 

 lation. Following the crest of the hill, still covered with grass and 

 wood, we were startled b}^ the number of fissures and crevices inter- 

 secting it in every direction. In some places, one was tempted to say 

 that more space was occupied by them than by the solid crust. 



The direction of the solid rock wall and the crevasse in the forest is 

 northeast by north to southwest by south, nearly parallel to a line 

 connecting Kiaiuea with the lava outbreak in Kahuka. The stream 

 running from the mud-flow is likely to remain permanent, as it is a con- 

 tinuance of the mountain stream above, and now runs upon exposed 

 solid bed rock. 



All this destruction was the work of the great earthquake of April 

 2. During the five days preceding it over 1,000 shocks had 

 been counted. On that afternoon, Mr. Harbottle, at Eeed's, with his 



