434 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 23, 



The greatest earthquake-shock took place on the 2nd April, at 

 3.40 P.M. The author describes this as excessively severe : the 

 whole island appeared as if it were being shaken to pieces ; walls 

 and houses were thrown down, great masses of rock were precipi- 

 tated from the cliffs, and large trees were broken off. Simultaneously 

 with this earthquake a great mud-eruption is said to have taken 

 place at Kapapala, although the author considers that the phenome- 

 non really consisted in the casting down of a hill-top upon the plain. 

 The debris extended over a space about three miles long, and vary- 

 ing from 500 yards to one mile in width. Over this space houses 

 and cattle were buried, and 31 persons are said to have lost their 

 lives. Immediately afterwards a stream of fresh water rushed down 

 the hill-side, and continued to flow permanently. The author sug- 

 gests that the sudden explosion by which this great earth-fall was 

 produced may have been caused by the contact of water with the 

 hot lava under the surface of the ground. 



On the 7th April a rent opened high up on Mount Loa, and from 

 this lava fl.owed. In the afternoon of the same day a fissure ap- 

 peared in a hill about ten miles from the sea, in the district of Ka- 

 huku, near the southernmost point of the island. From this a 

 stream of the smooth satin-like lava called " pahochoe " in Hawaii 

 flowed for a few hours, and then stopped. Another stream, of larger 

 size, and consisting of the rough, porous lava known locally as 

 " aa," burst forth in the neighbourhood of that just mentioned, but 

 about two miles nearer to the sea ; it issued immediately behind the 

 farmstead of the proprietor of Kahuku, which it immediately de- 

 stroyed, and afterwards flowed down to the sea until the 12th of 

 April, consuming everything in its course. About 250 head of 

 cattle were burnt up. The lava was described to the author as 

 issuing from the ground in four enormous jets. The smoke and 

 sulphurous vapour emitted during this eruption darkened and poi- 

 soned the air for a great distance around it. Soon after noon on 

 the 4th of April, an earthquake-shock, almost equal to that of the 

 2nd, was felt ; and this seemed to have affected the basin of Kilauea, 

 which had previously been unusually active ; for the lava-lakes sank 

 down, and the fires gradually died out, until, on the 7th of April, 

 none were to be observed. The coincidence of this sudden sinking 

 of the lava in the crater of Kilauea with the breaking out of the 

 great lava- stream at Kahuku, forty miles distant, seems, to the 

 author, to indicate an intimate connexion between the two pheno- 

 mena. 



The great earthquake of the 2nd of April was accompanied by a 

 destructive sea- wave, which washed away several villages, and de- 

 stroyed many lives. The whole south shore of the island has been 

 permanently depressed, in some places as much as 7 feet, but on 

 the average about 4^ feet. 



