184 KILAUEA. 



being still so near the place where it had formerly stood. Some of the 

 trunks were partly burnt, and others again had epiphytic plants still 

 adhering to them. 



In some places lava was found adhering to the leaves and branches 

 of trees, appearing as if it had been spattered upon them. In some 

 instances the lava thus adhering might have been taken for birds' 

 nests, yet the wood exhibited no signs of fire. The circumstance 

 which astonished me most, was the state of a copse of bamboos 

 (Bambusa arundinacea), which the lava had not only divided, but 

 passed on each side of: many of them were still living, and a part of 

 the foliage remained uninjured. Some of the large trees, not more 

 than twenty feet from the stream, seemed scarcely affected, and yet 

 not thirty yards from them we lighted our sticks by putting them 

 down no farther than two feet below the surface, although eight 

 months had elapsed since the eruption happened. Nearer to the sea, 

 all the foliage to the distance of three hundred and fifty yards from 

 the lava stream was killed. To account for these circumstances, we 

 must suppose either that the lava flows more rapidly, or that its power 

 of radiating heat is much less than is generally believed. 



The fixed stream has so much the appearance of a fluid mass that 

 it is deceptive, and the whole seemed yet in motion. Fire and smoke 

 were to be seen in many places. Its line of descent to the sea was on 

 a declivity of one hundred feet to the mile, and according to the native 

 account it reached the sea in two nights and a day — thirty-six hours. 

 The distance being a little over ten miles, the velocity must have been 

 about four hundred feet an hour. 



We proceeded down the lava stream until it expanded to a width 

 of three or four miles. There are many fissures along the whole line, 

 as will be perceived by the dark places on the map. I feel confident 

 that from each of these an ejection had taken place, and that the lava 

 had in some cases flowed in a contrary direction to the general course 

 of the stream ; for being traced in such cases, it was seen to have pro- 

 ceeded from a fissure that had occurred on rising ground. Wherever 

 the ground was steep, it was there perceived that tunnels or hollowed 

 places occurred, in consequence of the molten lava having flowed 

 from beneath the crust formed by cooling. The upper part of the 

 stream was composed of the description of lava called pahoihoi ; the 

 lower portion was much broken, though not of that description called 

 clinkers, and seemed as though it had been crowded together and 

 broken up like ice in the breaking up of the frost in our rivers, slab 

 overlaying slab, and many of them ground to pieces by the great 

 pressure from behind. 



