Judge D. H. Hitchcock saw the second and third streams on the i ith inst., from Kalaieha, already several miles in extent. Half way from the plains to the source the lavas rose into a large dome, over which it flowed like a fountain. Mr. Green says that several orifices discharged lava "accompanied by the usual white-hot lava fountains, brilliant reflections and immense volumes of smoke." These streams varied in width from a few yards to several miles, and there are separate areas several square miles in extent from ten to twenty feet thick. The cubic con tents were not equal in amount to those of the 1855 flow. The greater part of the lava came out in the first few weeks of its history. In four months' time the Hilo stream was about twenty six miles long and within seven miles of Hilo; in seven and two thirds months, June 28th, within five miles; July i8th, about two miles; and August loth, nine months after the outbreak, the stream stopped at a stone wall near a sugar mill, three fourths of a mile from Hilo. June 3oth, the velocity was meas ured and found to be seventy-five feet an hour. Had the flow been concentrated in one stream the town of Hilo would have been covered up. The people were very anxious, as was natural, and made use of divination and prayer to the higher powers for relief. Sorcerers or priests supposed to be represen tatives of the ancient Hawaiian regime attempted to stay the flood near the house of John Hall, The stream destroyed the house but left a small part of the garden and continued its general course. Prayers were offered continuously by the church, and it was believed that these supplications had led to the removal of the threatened calamity.
A series of eight photographs has been widely circulated, showing how a stream of water was licked up. The first dis plays a group of people standing at the edge of a cliff while the lava had nearly reached the brink behind them. Soon the people disappeared and a little of the sanguineous fluid crept over the bank. This increased, became a steady cataract, the water turned into steam, explosions ensued. The basin was gradually filled up and became a gently sloping plain in the space of one hundred minutes. At a similar locality the lava was cooled at first and large pieces accumulated in piles as high as the cliff ; then the lava stream flowed directly over the talus and the water flowed side by side with the lava until it had been evavorated and the basin filled up. This was fresh water.
I have seen one of these illustrations engraved in a book and it was said to be the flow of the stream into the ocean. In our his torical sketch several cases have been mentioned where the flow of lava reached the sea, but not this one. Plate 24B illus trates the movement of the lava over a cliff into a pool of fresh water.
The Kau stream is mostly aa, but started as pahoehoe. Most of the Hilo stream is pahoehoe. About four miles from Hilo there was a change from pahoehoe to aa, and one can pass for many rods through a tunnel in which the molten lava had flowed for a long time—the entrances being where the roof had fallen in. There are stalactites, stalagmites and various mouldings. Some of the surfaces are glazed. The tunnel is very variable in its dimensions, from two to ten feet high with a general width of thirty feet. The roof is from two to six feet thick. I have a view painted by Furneaux of the lava stream, intensely hot, coursing down the slope, but visible he cause of a break in the cover. Stalactites of peculiar shape abound: some are as slender as pipe stems, of uniform width, but very much twisted; others are straight with a short, irreg ular twist near the end. Mr. Baker found some bent toward a blowhole entrance into the tunnel. Some are from tw2.nty to thirty inches long, and usually six or eight inches apart. The stalagmites beneath consist of a heap of similar bent coalescing stems. Crystals of olivine are common in them. Other stalactites are short and thick, often resembling the udders of mammals, and have a glazed surface. Stalagmitic masses frequently are like piles of ordure. Some of the stalac tites show that clots of the liquid lava were thrown about and lodged upon them near their points. Plate 20 is a photograph of a cave near Bougainville showing the stalactites hanging from the roof and the stalagmites beneath upon the floor. It was found in 1881 and was taken by Professor W. Libbey of Princeton in 1893.
The three streams connected with this eruption are delineated upon the general map of Hawaii, Plate 14.