170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 3 



2. On ^Ae Volcanic Eruptions in Hawaii. By the Rev. Titus 

 CoAN. In a Letter to W. Miller, Esq., H.M. Consul-General 

 for the Sandwich Islands. 



[Forwarded from the Foreign Office by order of Lord Clarendon.] 



(Abridged.) 



[This communication is a letter addressed to and transmitted by 

 Mr. Miller*, H.M. Consul-General at Woahoo. It describes some 

 remarkable volcanic eruptions in the Island of Hawaii (Owhyhee), of 

 which Mr. Coan was an eye-witness, during the last sixteen years ; 

 and includes an account of the great eruption of 1855-5G. Mr. 

 Coan has been the Resident Protestant Missionary at Hilo for twenty- 

 one years ; and was attending at the Annual Meeting in Honolulu 

 when he wrote his letter. 



In a despatch from Mr. Miller f, dated July 30, 1856, the erup- 

 tion in Hawaii is stated to be still active ; and a copy of * The Pa- 

 cific Commercial Advertiser' newspaper, accompanying this despatch, 

 contains a further notice of the eruption, which will be quoted in the 

 sequel. — Edit.] 



(1840.) — At the time of the great eruption from Kilauea, in 1840, 

 an immense flood of molten rock forced itself under the mural sides 

 of the great crater, at the depth of 1000 feet, pursuing its way 

 towards the sea in subterranean galleries for ten miles, — cracking the 

 superincumbent strata, and throwing up occasional jets of smoke, 

 steam, gases, and lava, until the fiery flood broke ground, and rolled 

 down in a burning deluge, from one to four miles wide, sweeping 

 away forest and hamlet, and filling the heavens with its murky 

 clouds and its lurid glare. In three days it reached the sea, having 

 travelled thirty miles ; and for two weeks it plunged in a vast fiery 

 cataract, a mile wide, over a precipice some 50 feet high. The com- 

 motion, the detonations, the rolling and gyrating clouds of ascend- 

 ing vapour were awfully sublime. The ocean was heated for twenty 

 miles along the coast, and thousands of marine animals were killed. 



(1843.) — In 1843 a great eruption burst from the summit of 

 Mauna Loa. The lava rushed with terrific force down the northern 

 slope of the Mount to the base of Mauna Kea, where it divided into 

 two broad streams ; one turning N.E. towards Hilo, and the other 

 N.W. towards Waimea. This flood was about thirty miles long, 

 and from one to three miles wide. I visited it when in intense action, 

 and traced the stream from its terminus to its crater on the summit 

 of the Mount, sometimes walking over the incandescent stream on 

 its hardened arches, and sometimes skirting along its verge. 



(1852.) — In 1852 a crater suddenly opened on the top of the 

 Mauna Loa, from which a fiery column shot up several hundred feet, 



* For previous notices, by Mr. Miller, of the Eruption of Mauna Loa, see Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xii. pp. 171 & 386. 

 t Also read at this Evening Meeting. 



