level outer crater, but no wall around Hale- | maumau, which was one very large pit, with fire-waves within fifteen feet of the level surface. In 1846, he found it covered with a dome about twelve feet high and not more than a foot in thickness. The fiery lava could be seen through two small apertures, and was within fifteen feet of the summit.

About 1848, says Mr. Coan, the lake had become crusted with a thick stratum of lava, which was gradually raised to a dome nearly three hundred feet in height, covering the whole lake, traversed here and there by rents and fissures, and studded by an occasional cone. In 1849, he speaks of violent roarings and detonations from the cones on the dome. At this time there was only one small orifice on the summit, to which he rashly climbed, and, looking in, beheld the fire raging below. The dome resembled a cracked cake, with fire visible through the cracks. In 1852, he speaks of a complete dome two miles in circumference. In July, 1855, he says: "The great dome is throwing up columns to a height of two hundred feet, while its walls tremble at the fury of the waves which rage within." In the outer crater he counted sixty fiery lakes, and the whole surface was dotted with burning cones. In October, 1855, he said: "The great dome over Halemaumau is swept away, and a jagged rim from twenty to sixty feet high now encircles it. The fusion may be one hundred feet below. There are now about a dozen lakes of raging lava in Kilauea."

In 1865, Mr. Reid told me, he counted sixteen lakes in the outer crater. He lay all night on the crag-wall, and watched them quietly overflow, till one-third of the crater was a bed of fire. In 1866, Mr. Sisson told me, he found the Halemaumau one lake without any division, surrounded by a low wall. The fire was pretty quiet, and within ten feet of the top of the wall. The North lake, which is now extinct, was a pit of liquid fire, two hundred feet long by five hundred wide. Between this and the Halemaumau were seven other lakes, which increased in size till 1868, when the great flow in Kau occurred, and the lakes disappeared. For months there was no fire, only smoke. From January to March, 1868, these lakes were in ceaseless action, and from one large blow-hole volumes of steam were thrown up at intervals of a minute, with loud roaring. Suddenly this ceased, and the whole bed of the crater was overflowed with incandescent

lava. On the 1st of April the bottom of the Halemaumau fell in, sinking about six hundred feet. Fully two-thirds of the floor of the outer crater also caved in in the middle, and sank from one to three hundred feet, leaving an outer rim raised around the base of the cliffs. Mr. Reid tells me he descended about three hundred feet into the Halemaumau, climbing down the broken lava. He could see no trace of fire, only steam and smoke. It was a great pit without any division. It was at this time that the terrible eruption occurred at Kahuku, when the earth was rent by a steam crack thirteen miles in length, which has necessitated the alteration of the road to that extent-a crack which to this day continues to pour forth steam.

In July, 1868, seven or eight blowing cones formed on the walls of the Halemaumau, and from these molten lava poured into the lake and soon filled it up.

In 1872, there was one lake full of fire, with high crags. In 1873, Mr. Nordhoff saw two lakes, filled with a raging, roaring, restless mass of fiery matter dashing in ceaseless tumult. The two lakes were separated by a narrow ledge of lava, which was sometimes overflowed and melted down. Standing upon the northern bank, he could see both lakes, at about eighty feet below him. Three months before his visit, the lava had overflowed the high banks on which he stood, and had poured itself into. the outer crater. Six months later it again rose almost to the surface, and forced a passage for itself through one side, thence flowing in a vast river of fire into the main crater.

In January, 1874, Miss Bird found one irregularly shaped lake almost divided by a lava-wall. The height of the crags inclosing it was about forty feet on one side and one hundred and fifty on the other. The lake lay thirty-five feet below the spot where she stood, and was intensely active, having eleven fire-fountains in ceaseless ebullition, but producing no smoke. In June, 1875, she returned, and found the encompassing crags raised to a height of five hundred feet above the level of the outer crater. Standing on this elevation, the fiery lava within Halemaumau lay about eighty feet below her, and formed two lakes, separated by a solid barrier of lava, about three hundred feet broad and eighty feet deep. There were no playful fire-fountains, but raging, sulphurous waves and whirlpools,-a thing of awful sublimity,-accompanied by fearful detonations and thundering crashes, and by stifling gases.

In January, 1878, the crag-walls of the Halemaumau were one hundred and seventy-five feet in height, and the fire-lake was full to within twenty-five feet of their summit, being thus raised, as in a cup, one hundred and fifty feet above the outer crater.

In November, 1878, it was still one large lake, and so full that the dancing fire of its waves was visible from the inn. There was also a large flow in the outer crater. Of all the rapid changes that occurred within the bed of the crater in 1879 I have already spoken.

Of course the more important flows are those which have burst forth outside of lawful limits, choosing their scene of action without respect of place or person. In looking at a map of Hawaii, such as that furnished by Brigham, and marking the course of the principal lava-flows, one is forcibly reminded of a star-fish, of which Mauna Loa is the body, the lava streams forming the long, irregular arms.

The first eruption of which we have a distinct record was in 1789. It was accompanied by fearful earthquakes, terrific darkness, and thunder and lightning. This eruption differs from all others in that no lava is mentioned,-only sand and scoriæ, with volumes of steam and sulphurous vapor, just such an eruption as that which overwhelmed Pompeii.

In 1823, there was a very grand eruption, with lava-flow thirty miles in length.

In 1840, the bed of the crater sank about three hundred feet, and her fires vanished. They traveled under-ground, with roaring and much commotion, till they broke open a passage in the district of Puna, whence they rolled onward, burning forests, villages, and plantations-a terrific flood, from one to three miles wide, and from twelve to two hundred feet in depth, varying with the extreme irregularity of the ground; and, having traveled a distance of forty miles in four days, it entered the sea seventeen and a half miles from Hilo, leaping a precipice of about fifty feet and forming a fire-cataract as broad as Niagara. This raging, blood-red torrent continued for three weeks to pour into the ocean, which was heated for twenty miles along the coast.

In 1843, Mauna Loa broke out near the summit. Two large craters were formed, and two streams of lava poured out from fissures, one flowing westward toward Kona, the other toward Mauna Kea, and dividing into two streams, one branch turning toward Waimea, the other toward Hilo.

This continued four weeks. Mr. Coan reached the scene, with much effort and peril, and found the craters throwing up columns of lava to a height of four hundred feet.

In 1851, he saw columns of light and smoke rising and falling on the summit of Mauna Loa. He found that they proceeded from an opening five miles from Mokua-weo-weo, and one thousand feet below the summit, whence poured a river of fire from one to two miles in width and perhaps ten in length. This flowed into the Kona district, and only lasted four days.

In February, 1852, an eruption took place near the summit of Mauna Loa, which apparently died out in two days, but afterward burst out, with amazing splendor, four thousand feet below the summit, on the side toward Hilo. For twenty days and nights (says Mr. Coan) it threw and sustained a column of liquid fire one thousand feet high, by actual measurement, and one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The stream of fire flowing thence was visible for thirty miles, when it disappeared in the woods within ten miles of Hilo. In twenty days it formed, at the point of eruption, a cone nearly one mile in circumference at the base and four hundred feet high, which remains to this day. Mr. Coan stood by this cone when in full action, and his description of the scene is appalling. After a toilsome journey from Hilo, he emerged from the forest, and his eyes rested on Mauna Kea, robed in spotless snow, while from Mauna Loa poured glowing rivers of fire. Following the direction of these, he hewed a path through the forest with great difficulty—a task which cost him four days and nights of severe toil. At length he reached the mighty fire-fountain. Its action was accompanied by terrific detonations and explosions; jets of red-hot and white-hot lava were ejected with a force which threatened to rend the rocky ribs of the mountain, and, assuming every conceivable form, fell in fountains of fire.

In August, 1855, occurred the most awful eruption. It commenced near the summit of Mauna Loa, and for three months steadily advanced toward Hilo, in a stream of sufficient breadth to overwhelm the whole town and harbor. Day by day parties went up from the town to report on its progress, and great was the alarm of all. Solemn services were held in the churches,-no mere matter of form, you may believe,and the cry of the people was answered. Just when danger seemed most imminent,

it burst out at Kahuku, in Kau, at a height of thirty-eight hundred feet above the sea, where it rent a fissure nearly a mile in length, from which it poured with terrific fury, forming four vast fire-fountains, fluid as water, and blood-red. Sometimes they flowed together so as to form but two fountains, and sometimes only one of vast dimensions; hence the flood rushed on in spiral swirls, pouring over each lip of the crevice, spouting up fifty or sixty feet in the air, falling among trees and shrubs, scathing, charring, and consuming them, tossing, and roaring, like the rapids of Niagara rushing madly on to the sea.

POSTSCRIPT, by T. M. C.

The latest of the great eruptions from Mauna Loa broke out on the night of Friday, November 5th, 1880, and by the last advices received from the Rev. Titus Coan, was still in active progress. The veteran missionary, now in his eighty-first year, no longer betakes himself to the mountains or to the mighty volcanoes in his diocese ; but recent observations of interest are in hand. Hilo is distant some forty miles in a straight line from the sources of the mountain eruptions, which usually break out near the summit, but not upon it, and, during the day of the 6th, writes an observer from Hilo :

A writer in the Honolulu "Gazette," of

of air in the old lava caverns and its bursting up through the crust. Then occasionally a deep but loud rumbling noise would almost start us from our seats, evidently coming from the deep recesses of the old mountain, as if it were spouting forth its fiery flood. The cannonade was very frequent; mountain. I could compare the whole view to nothing now close to us, and again coming from far up the but a blaze of chain lightning frozen in its tracks."

The next day, November 9th, this tourist made his way to another branch of the stream, where the fusion of the lava was not perfect; a so-called a-a flow:

"We stood at the very edge of that flowing river of rock. What a sight that was! Not twenty feet from us was this immense bed of rock slowly moving forward with irresistible force, bearing on its surface huge rocks and bowlders as water carries a toy boat. The front edge of the mass was from twelve to

thirty feet high; and this whole front was one bright red mass of solid rock, incessantly breaking off at its crest, and rolling down to the foot of the towering mass, to be covered up incessantly by another avalanche of red-hot rocks and sand. Along its whole line of advance it was one crash of rolling, sliding, tumbling red-hot rock. We could see no fire or liquid lava at all, but the whole advance line was red-hot stones and scoriæ. There was a roaring like ten thousand blast-furnaces. The advance of the

mass was slow but sure.

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There is still great danger for our beautiful town of Hilo."

Another correspondent remarks in this flow a feature that has been little noted in previous accounts of the Hawaiian eruptions, but which is of not infrequent occurrence; namely, that the lava stream will sometimes flow uphill for a considerable distance. This happens when the inclosing crust of solidified lava is tough enough to withstand, like the tube of an aqueduct or of a fire-hose, the pressure from within. The semi-viscid lava, forcing its way through the far extrem

ing scene that he saw, after forcing his way to the heart of the mountain solitudes, on the night of the 8th November:

"The whole stream lay before us. Away above us in the heavens shone the brilliant fountain-head, and from thence to the end was a continuous stream of liquid lava, brighter by far than fire; we could see how pale fire looked in comparison, whenever a bush burnt up alongside. There lay a river of fire before us at least thirty miles long, every inch of which was one bright, rolling tide of fire. There was not a single break in the whole length. It divided about a mile from the top and ran down, forming a parallelogram, joined again, and ran five miles below. The front edge, about three-fourths of a mile wide, was a most intensely brilliant sight; as it slowly advanced and rolled over the small trees and scrub, bright flames would flash up and die out along its above edge. Now and then a report as of a cannon broke on the stillness, caused, suppose, by the heating

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gushes and successive coolings carry itself up a declivity, or entirely across a considerable valley, in a short space of time; so that the objective point of a given flow can seldom be determined accurately by "the lay of the land." This eruption is accompanied by great activity in Kilauea, where the South lake has been gradually filling for many months. November 30th it was reported by a visitor as overflowing.

Professor J. D. Dana (in the " American Journal of Science" for May, 1859) estimates the bulk of Mauna Loa as one hundred and twenty-five times greater than that of Vesuvius. As each mountain has been entirely built up by the overflow of its eruptions, we may see with what justice those of Hawaii have been called "the greatest volca noes in the world."