KILAUEA. 



185 



LAVA FLOW. 



About six miles from the sea, it appeared as though there had been 

 a simultaneous outbreak over a large area. The stream was suffi- 

 ciently fluid at all places to 

 seek the lowest level, and an 

 idea of the flowing may be 

 formed from the annexed dia- 

 gram, which I sketched from 

 the top of a cone. 



Near the centre of this flow 

 was a mound that had been 

 covered with trees. These 

 were all left standing, but had 

 not a leaf upon them, which 

 increased the desolate appear- 

 ance of the scene before us. 

 In our w r alk we occasionally 

 met a " blowing cone," with quantities of salts, sulphur, and hot sul- 

 phureous gases still issuing from it. 



After having satisfied ourselves with this part, we ascended an old 

 crater-hill, and crossing over it, came to an old lava plain of the kind 

 called pahoihoi : this appeared quite solid, and its surface was un- 

 broken ; there were no holes like those I have described on the recent 

 flow ; but in place of them there were a large number of raised 

 truncated cones, some of which were inverted. These appeared to me 

 to have been lava jets that had resulted from a subsequent flow of the 

 upper pahoihoi, which had been forced upwards, cooling as it met the 

 air, and congealing. Each of these pillars was perforated with a 

 hole from top to bottom, and the lava that composed them was lami- 

 nated. The wood-cut of lava jets will be seen at the end of this 

 chapter. 



These columns are sometimes twenty feet high, and some of them 

 resemble colossal statues of rude workmanship. 



As long as the pahoihoi lasted, we had pleasant walking; but it did 

 not reach far, for the rough lava seemed to predominate in our path, 

 and made the way irksome and fatiguing. 



This hill has a tradition attached to it, which one of our guides 

 related to us. When Palila, one of their gods, in former times, was 

 on the hill roasting bananas, the people of Papapala saw the smoke, 

 and went up to ascertain who was there. They found only a boy 

 cooking bananas, and attempted to take them from him ; but his power 

 was such, that he beat them all and drove them down the moun- 

 tain ; and they never again ventured to encounter so powerful a god. 



vol. iv. a 2 24 



