238 T. Coan on Recent Eruption of Mauna Loa. 
© soon as we entered this stream we found it discolored with 
pyroligneous acid from burning wood, whose odor and taste 
Pp 
that the lava flow had crossed the head waters of the stream and 
its small tributaries, consuming the forest and jungle, and sending 
down what could not be evaporated of the juices to mingle with 
the stream. 
A little before sundown, our guide led us at right angles from 
the stream we had been threading for six hours, and in a few min- 
utes the fires of the volcano glared upon us through the woods. 
We were within six rods of the awful flood which was moving 
sullenly along on its mission towards Hilo. The scene beggared 
description, and for a moment we stood mute and motionless. 
Soon, however, we moved on to the verge of the igneous river. 
Thrusting our poles into the fusion, we stirred it and dipped it up 
like pitch, taking out the boiling mass and cooling all the speci- 
mens we desired. e were on the right or southern verge of the 
stream, and we also found that we were about two miles above 
its terminus, where it was glowing with intense radiance and 
pushing its molten flood into the dense forest which still disputed 
its passage to the sea. 
We judged the stream to be two or three miles wide at this 
point, and over all this expanse, and far as the eye could see 
above, and down to the end of the river, the whole surface was 
dotted with countless fires, both mineral and vegetable. Immeuse 
trees which had stood for hours, or for a day, in this molten sea 
were falling before and below us, while the trunks of those pre- 
viously prostrated were burning in great numbers upon the sut- 
face of the lava. It is impossible to give you any just concep- 
tion of the scene. as 
u are aware that the great fire-vent on the mountain dis- 
charges its floods of incandescent minerals into a subterraneall 
pipe which extends, at the depth of from 50 to 200 feet, down 
the side of the mountain. Under this arched passage the boiling 
fusion hurries down with awful speed until it reaches the plains 
below. Here the fusion spreads out under a black surface of 
hardened lava some six or eight miles wide, depositing immense 
masses which stiffen and harden on the way. Channels, how- 
ever, winding under this scorified stratum, conduct portions of the 
fusion down tothe terminus of the stream, some 65 miles from Its 
high fountain. Here it pushes out from under its mural arch, 
_ exhibiting a fiery glow, across the whole breadth of the stream 
_ Where the ground is not steep and where the obstructions from 
jungle, depressions, etc., are numerous, the progress is VeTY 
r, Say one mile a week. 
