J. D. Dana — History of the Changes in Kilauea. 91 



The existence of flames over the large boiling lake is attested 

 to by Mr. Brigham, who says (p. 423) speaking of a midnight 

 view, that "they burst from the surface, and were in tongues 

 or wide sheets a foot long and of a bluish green color, quite 

 distinct from the lava even where white hot. They played 

 over the whole surface at intervals, and I thought they were 

 more frequent after one of the periodical risings of the 

 surface." 



In 1866,* there was a great increase of activity in Kilauea 

 in May, June and July, beginning just after the cessation of 

 the summit eruption. In May, new lakes of fire and cones 

 were opened along a curving line extending from the Great 

 Lake northwest to north and northeast, thus again covering the 

 "black ledge" portion of the crater, flooding the surface with 

 lavas for a distance of four miles, and with a breadth in some 

 places of half a mile ; and for days the flood of lavas closed 

 the usual place of entrance to the crater. Large blocks were 

 shaken down from the walls of Kilauea; and Mr. Brigham 

 observes that these blocks were soon removed by the intensely 

 active flood at their base, "showing how pit craters may be en- 

 larged horizontally." In August the force of the eruption 

 seemed to be spent — but no subterranean outflow is known to 

 have occurred. During all the activity the central plateau of 

 the crater remained undisturbed. 



6. Eruption of 1868. — In 1868 a great outbreak and down- 

 plunge took place in Kilauea, almost simultaneously with an 

 erruption from the summit-crater of Mount Loa.f It was pre- 

 ceded by a succession of heavy earthquakes — two thousand or 

 more according to reports — commencing on the 27th of March 

 and culminating on Thursday, the 2nd of April, when a shock 

 occurred of terrific violence, which was destructive through 

 the districts of Hilo, Puna and Kau, northeast, east, south and 

 southwest of Mt. Loa, and was felt far west of the limits of 

 Hawaii. With the occurrence of this great shock, fissures were 

 opened from the south end of Kilauea southwestward through 

 Kapapala, a distance of thirteen miles, and bending thence south- 

 ward toward the coast. The position of this line of fissures is 

 shown on the large map of Hawaii published by the Grovern- 

 ment Survey in 1887 ; it followed the course of earlier fissures. 

 Some lavas were ejected from the openings in Kapapala, which 

 were probably lavas from Kilauea. Simultaneously with the 



*Coan, this Journal, II, xliii, 264, 1867 ; Brigham's Memoir, p. 427. 



fDr.Wm. Hillebrand, this Journal, II, xlvi, p.' 115, 1868; Uoan, ibid., 106 ; 

 P. S. Lyman, ibid., p. 109; H. M. Whitney, ibid., p. 112 ; Coan, ibid., xlvii, 89, 

 1869, letter of Sept. 1, 1868, with a map of southern Hawaii on p. 90. Also the 

 same letters in a paper by Mr. Wm. T. Brigham, in the Memoirs Bost! Soc. N. 

 Hist., i, 564, with a map on p. 572. The map was made by Mr. Brigham from 

 his survey in 1865 and the descriptions of the 1868 eruption. 



