396 Eraption-of Maite Loa in 1851. 
All-we could see at Hilo, was a white pillar of smoke by day 
and a brilliant fiery pillar by night. Owing to a canopy of 
clouds which, much of the time, shrouded the mountain, we 
obtained only occasional views of the eruption. At Kau the view 
was less obstructed. The rising columns of light and smoke, 
as seen from some points in that district, were said to be gor- 
geous and glorious. A gentleman then surveying in Keaiva— 
of notorious and impressive memory—tells me that the light at 
that place was sufficient to enable him to read in the night. e 
also asserted that he heard several distinct detonations from the 
mountain during the eruption, like the explosion of gases and 
the rending of rocks. This would be remarkable, as the distauce 
to the point of eruption must have been thirty or forty miles. 
But the most magnificent scenes were witnessed on the western 
side of the mountain, in the district of Kona. Enormous floods 
of rock in igneous fusion burst from an orifice supposed to be 
about five miles westward of Mokuaweoweo, the great crater 
where Captain Wilkes encamped, and rolled down ' the western 
slope of the mountain towards Kaawaloa in a stream from one to 
two miles wide, and, perhaps, ten miles long. You will, how- 
ture and not of actual observation and exact measurement. 
i | @ 5 = 
Two gentlemen ascended the mountain from Kaawaloa until 
ruseations and its rousing demonstrations, before all was hushe 
m profound silence and covered with a pall of darkness. Not- 
and chaotic regions is weakened, still, I cherish a desire, a hope 
and a purpose, once more to climb. those rugged and laborious 
heights, and to explore the recent volcanicewonders in those Un- 
trodden solitudes, 
Two gentlemen, Mr. Sawkins, an English artist, and a Mr. 
Grist, graduate of Yale, left Hilo ten days ago for Kilanea and 
Matina Loa, and they are, probably, on the summit of the moun- 
tain to-day. Their object is to visit and sketch the late eruption, 
aud from thence make a direct descent to Kailua or Kaawaloa. 
expect to hear from them ina few days, aid hope for some- 
thing more definite when they shall have reported. 
