ery Ss Wick Ga Re + aaa a ee ei Nera ar gM PM ada eli a 
Geology and Natural History. 79 
already from 150 to 200,) with reference to giving full details and 
further results in a future paper 
oleanic Hruptions of Mauna Loa, Hawaii.—A letter of No- 
vember 9th to 12th, from the Rev. Titus Coan of Hilo, addressed 
to Prof. C.8. Lyman of New Haven, states that, on the 6th, apeeee 
were seen toward the summit of Mauna Loa and evidence of a 
or a 
view of the region one of the spurs uf Mauna Kea, all the elevated 
plain between Mauna Loa and Manna Kea was a sea of glowing 
lava, and from it a current was flowing off eastward toward Hilo. 
Mr. D. Hitchcock, who visited the region of lavas between the 
mountains, on the oth, states that the stream was on the north side 
of the flow of 1855- 56, had a length to the plain of about thirty 
miles, and was three- fourths of a mile wide at its terminus. Heavy 
ads from the escaping vapors a ~~ seca of fires the 
length of ceaky miles, running i Sime oward East Kau 
or Kilauea. On the 11th the fires were at active from the 
summit downward. The “ fountain-head” had not been visited, 
but Mr. Coan judged that it was to the north of the summit er ater 
near the point of eruption of 1843, which was about 13,000 feet 
above the sea-level; and he states that adding thirty miles for 
the length of he. southeast branch, it makes a continuous line of 
flow of sixty m 
The Subse Advertiser of Honolulu for November 20th 
contains noties from which the following facts are taken. The 
eruption began on ‘sli oe of the 5th without any violent ie 
onstrations or earthqu The river of fire from the summit, a 
seen at night, was a serra line of light. The whole front pee 
about three-fourths of a mile wide, was ‘Intensely brilliant ; and as 
it slowly advanced and rolled over the small trees and. shrubs, 
ssa ames would flash up and die out along its whole edge. 
very now and then there was a report like that of cannon, made 
probebly by the escape of steam from waters that were caught 
eneath. According to a describer who went within twenty feet 
Riis g on the crusted covering; “it was one crash of rolling, 
sliding, tumbling, red-hot rock, no ‘liquid rock being in sight; 
there were no explosions, but a trem endous roaring, like ten 
thousand blast furnaces all at work at once.” Such a flow makes 
what are called on Hawaii aa, or clinker-fields, The rough blocks 
lie piled together in the wildest confusion, many as large as 
ordinary houses. They form ony movement is s 
