VOLCANOES. 731 



The outflow in January, 1843 (1, Fig. 1117), began in silence, at a 

 height of 13,000 feet above the sea, and spread northward and west- 

 ward for 25 or 30 miles, finishing its work without an earthquake. 

 Again in February, 1852, a bright light at the very summit was the 

 first announcement of another eruption (2, Fig. 1117). Three days 

 later, the eruption was continued in an outbreak 4,000 feet lower, 

 which was also a quiet one ; and at this second opening, as described 

 by T. Coan, a fountain of fiery lavas, 1,000 feet broad, played to a 

 height at times of 700 feet, with indescribable grandeur and brilliancy. 

 There were rumblings and mutterings from the plunging flood, and 

 explosions, but no earthquakes. (Am. J. Sci., II. xiv. 1852, xv. 1853.) 

 In 1855, another eruption (3, Fig. 1117) began without noise or 

 shaking as before, at an elevation of 12,000 feet. The length of the 

 stream of lava was sixty miles. In January, 1859, another eruption 

 (4, Fig. 1117) made its first announcement at the summit in the same 

 quiet manner as the preceding ; it, however, ended at a point on the 

 northwest side of the mountain, 1,500 feet above the sea, in a fiery 

 fountain, the lavas being thrown up " like the waters of a Geyser " to 

 a great height. 



In each of these summit eruptions, there were no earthquakes be- 

 yond slight quiverings ; and Kilauea, although so large a pit, and in 

 full action, showed no sympathy. 



In 1868, on March 28, another summit eruption commenced; but 

 — unlike the others known — it was attended with violent earth- 

 quakes ; and besides, Kilauea took part. As late as April 10, four 

 "fountains of lava " were playing near Kahuku (K, Fig. 1117) to a 

 height of 500 to 1.000 feet. Kilauea was simultaneously emptied, its 

 bottom sinking, when the Kahuku outburst began, 300 to 400 feet, as 

 at the eruption of 1840, and the bottom of the great lake dropping 

 400 feet lower, making a pit a mile across its floor (by Mr. Coan's 

 measurement), within the area of the great pit, Kilauea. 



During the ten years following this eruption, Kilauea had become 

 again filled by the overflowings of its great lake and fissure outflows, 

 nearly to the level of the Black Ledge ; and then the quietest of all 

 its eruptions took place ; the lavas ran out without any announcement 

 with not even a steaming fissure to indicate its underground course ; 

 the bottom of the lake sank 300 feet. There were some unusual but 

 light waves in the ocean, which, as Mr. Coan states, suggest that there 

 may have been a submarine outflow. 



At some of the eruptions of Hawaii the outflows have been be- 

 neath the sea-level, as shown by the great number of dead fish thrown 

 up on the coast. 



Catastrophic eruptions have occurred in the Hawaiian Islands far exceeding in vio- 



