Eruption of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. 113 
The new crater, when visited by Mr. Swain, was at least one 
and a half miles in extent, nearly circular, but constantly en- 
vouring element. The enlargement is going on mainly on the 
lower side, toward the factons outs and it is thought that its 
diameter is already about two miles. Four huge jets or foun- 
tains were continually being thrown up out of this great crater, 
ever varying in size and height, sometimes apparently all join- 
ing together and making one continuous spouting a mile and 
ahalf long. From the lower side of the crater a stream of 
liquid, rolling, boiling lava poured out and ran down the plateau, 
en down the side of the pali (following the track of the gov- 
ernment road), then along the foot of the pali or precipice five 
miles to the sea. 
_This was the scene that opened before us as we ascended the 
ridge on Friday (10th). At the left were these four grand foun- 
tains playing with terrific fury, throwing blood-red lava and huge 
stones, some as large as a house, to a height varying from 5 
to 1,000 feet. The grandeur of this scene, ever changing like 
a moving panorama, no one who has not seen it can realize. 
‘Then there was the rapid, rolling stream, rushing and tum- 
ling like a swollen river, down the hill, over the precipice and 
down the valley to the sea, surging and roaring like a cataract, 
with a fury perfectly indescribable. This river of fire varied 
from 200 to 800 feet in width, and when it is known that the 
descent was 2,000 feet in five miles, the statement that it ran at 
the rate of ten to twenty-five miles an hour will not be doubted.* 
We waited till night, when the scene was a hundred fold 
more grand and vivid. The crimson red of the lava now doubly 
t, the lurid glare of the red smoke-clouds that over- 
hung the whole, the roaring of the rushing stream, the noise 
of the tumbling rocks thrown out of the crater, the flashes of 
electric lightning, and the sharp quick claps of thunder—alto- 
made the scene surpassingly grand. 
* Some corrections are here introduced from Mr. Whitney’s later account in the 
Advertiser of May 9th.—Eps. 
Am. Jour. Sct.—Seconp Serres, Vou. XLVI, No. 136.—JuLx, 1868. 
8 
