J. D. Dana on the recent Eruption of Mauna Loa, 257 
Coan mentions when describing the descent of the lavas in the 
summit eruptions of 1843.* The slopes of Mauna Loa, although 
the mountain is over 14,000 feet high, are therefore not too steep 
to receive accessions from top to bottom, from eruptions of vast 
extent over its sides. With such facts, in connection with others 
brought forward by the writer, we are assuredly sustained in 
not admitting the universal application of the so-called elevation 
theory. But in rejecting this theory, we do not go to the o 
posite extreme, and adopt in its full extent the overflow theory. 
The truth, as usual, lies between the two extremes, as the wri- 
ter has elsewhere urged. Both causes have acted in the history 
of all voleanoes ; both act from the very commencement of the 
germ-cone. There is elevation from the central action, from the 
opening and filling of fissures about the centre, and also from 
the outflow of lavas. The first of these operations may be most 
effective in the earlier periods of the rising mountain; but each 
continues to act till the fires die out; and in the later periods, 
especially, there is often a flattening process, arising from the 
spread of lavas ejected from fissures about the base of the moun- 
tain, which extend the shores, and diminish the angle of slope. 
VILL. The interval of time between the last three eruptions of 
the central crater of Mauna Loa is nine to ten and a half years. 
The first of these three took place in June, 1832; the second in 
January, 1843; the third in February, 1852. The recorded 
eruptions of Kilauea have occurred as follows, leaving out that o. 
_ 1789: the first in 1823, the second in 1832, the third in 1840, 
probably a fourth through a submarine or subterranean vent in 
1847 or 1848, and the fires are now increasing again in activity. 
In 1832 there were thus eruptions from both of these extensive 
Craters of Mauna Loa. 
We annex additional notes on the eruption from different 
sources. The account of the whirlwinds produced by the crater 
are of much meteorological interest. 
1. From a Letter of H. Kinney, dated Waiohinu, Hawaii, April.19, 
1852, (published in ‘* The Pacific,” San Francisco, of June 18. 
The light of the volcano, at night, was very great—illuminating the 
Surrounding country for many miles distant, and giving to the over- 
hanging clouds the “appearance of an immense body of fire. After 
that I resolved to make the long and tedious journey, to take a near 
View of this grand display of the ‘Almighty’s power. Accom anied by 
Mr. Fuller, I set out on the Ist day of March. After travelling through 
Woods and over wide districts of naked lava, we arrived at the vicinity of 
the eruption on the forenoon of the third day. Its deep, unearthly 
ee a a 
‘* This Journal, [2], x, 244. 
Szconp Series, Vol. XIV, No. 41.—Sept., 1852. 33 
