414 Eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaii. 
the flow of the lava varies from four to ten miles an hour, ac- 
cording to the descent. But after it reaches the plain, where it 
is level, the stream moves more slowly. ere the streams are 
not so numerous as higher up, there being a principal one which 
varies and is very irregular, from an eighth to half a mile in 
width, though there are frequent branches running off from it. 
This principal stream reached the sea near Wainanalii, or about 
fifteen miles south of Kawaihae, on the 81st, after a flow of eight 
days from the time that the eruption commenced on the 28d of 
January. This stream, on reaching the sea, spread out to about 
half a mile in width, and clouds of steam rose several hundred 
feet high, and covered the region. 
The length of the lava stream from the crater to where it en 
ters the sea at Wainanalii, we estimate to be thirty-eight miles. 
For the first ten miles from the crater, the flow is divided into 
many streams—perhaps as many as fifty—but lower down, it 18 
confined to one or two principal streams with frequent branches 
to the right and left.” 
Ww 
directions. The whole region, earth and heaven, were lig 
up, and even the interior of our houses received the lurid vol 
further below the top, and was sending out its fires in a nor 
westerly direction. On the second and third nights, the dense 
sunrise, the stream was compelled, though reluctantly, t sje 
by meeting the waters of the ocean. Even then its resist : 
and opposing energy carried it on some distan i 
he poor inhabitants of Wainanalii, the name of the villsg® 
where the fire reached the ocean, were aroused at the midmig 
