242 



T. Coan on the Eruption at Hawaii. 



low, sullen crash, is heard from below, as if infernal spirits had 

 risen to the surface of their fiery abyss and were there strug- 

 gling to burst the adamantine ceiling of their prison and breathe 

 the air of mortals. While you gaze in mute amazement, and 

 feel the solid masses of rock — often 30, 50 or 70 feet thick — 

 moving under your feet, the struggling lava oozes out, tbrough 

 ten thousand orifices and fissures, over a field of some four or 

 five square miles. More than once have I been on such a field, 

 and heard, and seen and felt more than is here or can be de- 

 scribed. And yet the action of the lava is so slow — in the con- 

 ditions described — that there is no fear, and little danger to one 

 well acquainted with such phenomena. While the timid novi- 

 tiate would flee for miles before such a scene, without looking 

 back, and without consciousness of breathing, the experienced 

 explorer will walk deliberately among the fiery pools, and rills, 

 pry off the caps of bursting tumuli, and dip up spoils from the 

 incandescent rocks. 



When the lava becomes obstructed so that it ceases, for a time, 

 to flow from the end of the stream, then the process which has 

 been described takes place at some point above, and the molten 

 mass coming up at many points, and accumulating on the sur- 

 face, moves down in a superincumbent stream or streams, cov- 

 ering up the hardened masses below, deepening the lava, and at 

 length reaching the terminus of the former flow, pushes on into 

 the standing forests, and continues its progress towards Hilo 

 perhaps a mile or so, when this hardens and stops, and at length 

 the process is repeated. Here you see the reason why Hilo has 

 not long since been buried. 



Several large tributaries of the Wailuku — the stream which 

 empties into our bay — are blotted out, and the water of the Wai- 

 luku is greatly reduced and rendered for the present unfit 

 for use. 



Scenes of terrible splendor have been witnessed in some of 

 our river channels, as the molten flood moved resistlessly down, 

 displacing the water, leaping the precipices, and lighting up the 

 banks with immense bonfires of flaming jungle. I have witnessed 

 two scenes of the kind of inexpressible brilliancy. One on the 

 night of the 29th of January, and the other on the 12th of Feb- 

 ruary. During the former night, the molten stream poured con- 

 tinuously over a precipice of 50 feet, into a deep, dry basin, half 

 filled with flood-wood. The angle down which this fire-cataract 

 flowed, was about 75° : the lava was divided into two, three, 

 and sometimes four channels, from one to four yards wide, and 

 two or three feet deep. The flow was continuous down the face 

 of this precipice from 2 P. M. on the 19 th until 10 A. M. on the 

 30th, when we left. During the night the immense basin under 

 the fall was filled, the precipice converted into an inclined plane 



