NOTES ON THE IQ16 ERUPTION OF MAUN A LOA 323 



the weather calm and cloudless. Suddenly the ship trembled from 

 stem to stern, as though it had grounded on a beach, and loose 

 things in the ship's galley were disturbed; also the smooth sea 

 surface suddenly became agitated violently by the commingling of 

 several different systems of waves, an action which kept it in a 

 state of turmoil for about a minute. (No shock so strong as this 

 one was recognizably registered in the Whitney Laboratory of 

 Seismology at Kilauea.) 



A little later, at about 4:15 a.m., Captain Nicholson heard a 

 sound lasting for about three seconds, which he likened to a volley 

 of musketry, and he then saw what he described as a spiral column 

 of fumes rising from a point high up on the south flank of 

 the mountain. From her residence above the road near Papa, 

 Mrs. McWayne in the early morning hours saw a bright glow high 

 up the mountain. 



During the morning and forenoon hours of May 19 a swarm of 

 local earthquakes was registered at the Whitney Laboratory. All 

 these were extremely feeble shocks, even when considered from 

 the seismographic point of view. The earliest of them was recorded 

 a little before three in the morning. Beginning in the late forenoon 

 a lull followed, less than twenty-four hours in duration. 



Throughout the evening and night of May 18, and the morning 

 and forenoon of May 19, the weather was brilliantly clear. Looking 

 westward from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, situated on the 

 northeast margin of the crater of Kilauea, one could see nearly the 

 whole profile of Mauna Loa outlined sharply against the sky. 

 From late evening until dawn there was brilliant moonlight. 

 Until midnight, and at 6:15 a.m., no signs of eruption were seen 

 from the vicinity of the observatory. However, at about 6:15 a.m. 

 the beginning of a fresh outburst of fumes, high on the mountain 

 slope, was seen by Captain Nicholson, whose ship had then come 

 to anchor at Honuapo. 



At about 7 a.m., perhaps a little before, a definite outbreak and 

 uprush of fumes became visible at Kilauea. At first a group of 

 cloud-forms appeared high up on the south flank of Loa, rising 

 from behind the mountain profile at a distance of at least twenty- 

 five miles, as viewed from near the observatory. Here these were 



