200 Miscellanies. 



iological sciences, will render the work, at the present time, highly accep- 

 table. 



9. Volcanic Phenomena in Hawaii. 



To Prof. B. Silliman — My dear Sir : You expressed a wish that I 

 might send you an extract from the letter of Capt. Couthouy ; and as my 

 way of doing business is never to delay, if avoidable, I send it you. The 

 letter is dated Honolulu, Oahu, Oct. 24, 1840. 



" Visited the great crater at Kirauea or Ka Lua Pele, which is an im- 

 mense pit one thousand feet deep and six miles in circuit, with perpen- 

 dicular walls, except at one point, where it is reached by a steep descent, 

 and the whole of this vast cauldron, full of boiling, bubbling, and spout- 

 ing lava. The surface at one moment black as ink, and the next exhib- 

 iting rivers and pools and jets of a hideous blood-red fluid, that was some- 

 times thrown up to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and fell back with a sul- 

 len plashing that was indescribably awful. The aspect of the whole was 

 hellish — no other term can express it. By night it was grand beyond 

 description. The frequent lightings up, the hissings and deep muttering 

 explosions, reminded me of some great city in flames, where there were 

 magazines of gunpowder or mines continually exploding. Vesuvius is a 

 fool to it. Just previous to my visit, the lava had burst out at a new place, 

 about six miles northeast of the crater, and flowed down to the sea in a 

 stream of forty miles in length, by from one to seven in breadth. I saw 

 the light one hundred miles off. It reached the sea in five days, threw 

 up three hills (I send a rude sketch, but literally correct, and interesting 

 as the work of a. native) of from one hundred and twenty to two hundred 

 and fifty feet high, gained two thousand feet out seaward from old line of 

 coast, by three fourths of a mile in width, and heated the water for fifteen 

 miles either side, to such an extent, that the fishes were heaped up in 

 myriads on the shore, scalded to death. Its falling into the sea, was ac- 

 companied with tremendous hissings, and detonations like constant dis- 

 charges of heavy artillery distinctly heard at Hilo, twenty minutes distant." 

 With great respect, yours, truly, D. H. Storer. 



10. Manilla Hemp. 



Singapore, May 29, 1840. 

 To Prof. B. Silliman — Dear Sir : Having had my attention called 

 to the subject of Manilla hemp, and the mode in which it is prepared, I 

 have had the good fortune to receive from a friend on the spot such an 

 account of the matter as may be interesting to some of your readers. My 

 correspondent is T. M. M., Esq., a British merchant in Manilla. His 

 paper is chiefly a translation of Blanco's Flora Filipina, from page 247 to 

 250. He has enjoyed the best opportunities for obtaining information on 



