Geology and Natural History. 407 
On the evening of the 13th we had the first perfect view from 
Hilo. The illuminated. cloud of steam and gases which hung 
over the crater sometimes rose in a well-defined vertioal column 
to a great height, and then the higher portion would. expand, 
forming an inverted cone; again it seemed lighted up above the 
mountain and Lg out like an umbrella over the crater. The 
changes of form, the expansion, ela bagi and convolutions of 
the . BAS pile, could be distinctly marked, and also the 
rapid variations in brilliancy dependent on the greater or less 
intensity of the Ber lavas in the abyss nee 
tis now seventeen days since we first saw the eruption, and 
still the great furnace is in full blast. The action is, evidently, 
intense, Of all the demonstrations made in this vast ee on 
the summit of the mountain since our yest in Hilo, 
have equalled this in magnitude, in vehem HES in rane 
8 yet It 1s confined to the deep crater ; ee we kn ot whether 
the terrific forees now raging in this abyss will rend the walls 
f the mountain and let out a flow of lavas to the eS or De 
their fury within the recesses of the mountain. e from 
the border of the ial must now be fearfully g : 
Tam ashamed to say, that, so far as we Aarne no one me yet 
visited the region ‘of eruption, jaf ite o py age (nearly 72), 
in ‘ta mily, I hould before this 
tanch of Reed and Richardson in Kapapala, Kau, you can aie up 
on horseback. in a Lome I hope soon to hear that some one has 
been to the samm 
Ten thousand ect below the summit fires is Kilauea. This 
crater ha n very active of late. The south lake, which 
Was so dee en I last wrote you, has long been filled, and it 
has over many times, sending off broad streams of incan- 
reat 
Southern portion of Kilauea, van cones that uff and screech 
23d inst., a tidal wave. It occurred at a calm, 
e sea in our ae rose silently and rapidly, like an sboqming tide, 
to the height of four pet ine pais Ina ix minutes it had 
Wing fainter, until the “ia Tees to its normal condition. 
e had no earthquake at the 
e have had occasional slight earthquakes of late, but no 
Severe periee 
5. Ascent of Mauna Loa to the scene of Eruption.—The fol- 
lowing i is an extract from an account of the ascent of Mauna Loa 
Yo the place of et ag published in the Pacific C eamnainegae 
Advertiser of Sept. 2 
