J. D. Dana — History of the Mt. Loa Summit Grater. 19 



the terminus of a line of fissures leading down from the place 

 of the first outbreak. The escaping lavas rose at first in a 

 lofty fountain , and then flowed eastward for twenty miles. 

 On the 27th, Mr. Coan reached the place of the fountain ap- 

 proaching it on the windward side within 200 feet. He found 

 the ' lavas playing, as he states, to a height of 400 to 500 and 

 Y00 feet, by angular measurement, in ever-varying forms of 

 towers, pyramids and spires, and with variations also in colors 

 from white heat at base to red above and then to grayish red 

 and gray. 



Great volumes of lava were ascending and descending, not 

 intermittently but continuously ; and the " surging, roaring, 

 booming " sounds were almost deafening, but without earth- 

 quake from beginning to end. Ashes and capillary glass fell 

 in the streets of Hilo. The stream stopped about ten miles 

 from the village. The grand eruption was in blast only twenty 

 days. All this time Kilauea was quiet. 



In July, Mr. Coan ascended again to the crater or place of 

 discharge* and found the fires extinct. He says, a kind of 

 u pumice " was abundant and widely scattered ; " we found it ten 

 miles from the crater, and it grew more and "more abundant 

 till we reached the cone, where it covered the whole region to 

 a depth of five or ten feet." 



An ascent to the active fires was made early in March by 

 Mr. H. Kinney f and Mr. Fuller. Mr. Kinney, speaking of 

 the sounds from the cataract of liquid lavas, says : " its deep 

 unearthly roar, which we began to hear early on the day be- 

 fore, waxed louder and louder as we drew nearer the action, 

 until it resembled the roar of the ocean's billows when driven 

 by the force of a hurricane against a rock-bound coast, or like 

 the deafening roar of Niagara." This description attests to 

 the fountain-like character of the discharge ; for such sounds 

 do not come from flowing lavas unattended by earthquake phe- 

 nomena. Mr. Kinney made the height of the jets 400 to 800 

 feet. He reports also, that the heat created terrific whirlwinds 

 which stalked about like so many sentinels, bidding defiance 

 to the daring visitor. 



Mr. Fuller states,;): that from careful calculations made, 

 "after deliberate discussion with Mr. Kinney," "some of 

 which," he says, " have been confirmed by a somewhat accu- 

 rate measurement by Mr. Lyman of Hilo," the diameter of 

 the crater from which the fountain rose was about 1000 feet ; 

 height of the crater, 100 to 150 feet ; height of the fountain, 



* Coan, ibid., xv, 63, 1853. 



f H. Kinney, this Journal, II, xiv, 257. 1852, from the "Pacific" of San Fran- 

 cisco of June 19, the letter dated Waiohinu, Hawaii, April 19, 1852. 



^Fuller, this Journal, xiv, p. 258, 1852, letter dated Waiohinu, March, 28. 



