THE DISPLAY OF 1899.
It was my good fortune to have been in Hawaii in 1899 and to have witnessed from a distance the beautiful columns of liquid lava rising several hundred feet above the surface. I collated the facts observed by myself and others in a Bulletin of the Geo logical Society of America, Vol. 12, and present them essentially as they were printed at that time. Upon the Mauna Kea side of the mountain the principal crater developed at this time is called the "Dewey Crater," after the visit of J. R. Wilson, who planted the United States flag there July 22d, and christened it, as men tioned, in honor of the distinguished Admiral whose exploits were then fresh in mind. There were seven, besides the guide in the party.
On June 20, 1899, a very distinct earthquake shock was felt at Wailiilii, my temporary residence, twenty-three miles from Hilo, eight from Kilauea, and twenty-four in a right line from the place of outburst. It was at 7 :40 P. M., and lasted about a quar ter of a minute. At about the same hour two shocks were ob served at Hilo, one of them quite severe. None were noticed at the Volcano House by Kilauea, which is eighteen miles from the place of outburst. A few days later another shock was felt ; also on July II, and perhaps later. It is natural to believe that these earthquakes had a direct connection with the eruption, especially as they were particularly manifested along a supposed axial line of lava accumulation.
On the first day of July the manager of the Egan coffee planta tion, twenty-one miles from Hilo, saw a light above the top of Mauna Loa, or the pit Mokuaweoweo. On the morning of July 4 this light was quite conspicuous from both Hilo and Punaluu. Early July 5 there came an outburst of liquid lava from a point in the ridge six miles northeasterly from Mokuaweoweo and thirty from Hilo. It was best seen at Kilauea. The people there had been expecting an eruption in their own volcano ; hence when early in the morning they heard a great noise like thunder and observed a flash of light they looked to see commotion in Kilauea. In this they were disappointed, and, looking in a con trary direction, saw the beginning of the flow of 1899 from Mauna Loa. Fountains of liquid fire spouted hundreds of feet high, at an elevation of about ii,000 feet above the sea. The place of discharge proved to be near to but higher than the source of the flow of i88o, and not far away from the terminal cones of the discharges of 1823, 1843, 1852, and 1855.
Parties commenced immediately to travel to the source of the flow, contrary to the report sent east by the press that people were fleeing for their lives, abandoning their plantations to the fiery flood. Citations will be made from the accounts given by
Professor Edgar C. W. Professor A. B. In and the Honorable W. R. the dates of their visits having been July II, 12, 13, and 16, respectively. I had visited the place of the outbreak in 1883, and speak of it in my notes as a region of indescribably rough lava, both "aa" and "pahoehoe," black, yellowish and brown. Our horses were left some distance behind, as the blocks of lava were too large and rough to be com fortably traversed by them. The crater of the Kau part of the 188o flow was a mass of black and red lapilli. The adjacent ter minal crater at the head of the Hilo stream still emitted heat and vapor, more than two years after it started. The 1899 flow began its course near the source of the Hilo stream of 188o, and more than two miles above the beginning of the eruption of 1852. By July 5 two fountains were in operation, at about i i,000 and io,800 feet elevation, and nearly a mile apart. A week later the upper one had become only a smoky chimney, while a third cone was active near the second. The lava streams from the two open ings united and then flowed northerly, directed toward Mauna Kea. Masses of stones and clots of lava were seen to be thrown out with the liquid lava. C. H. Kluegel, chief engineer of the Oahu Railway Company, drew a rough sketch of the cone, with its discharge, estimating the stream to be sixty feet wide, the fall eighty feet in the first four hundred of descent, the velocity forty feet per second, and the depth ten feet. "There is a continuous and somewhat regular flow of lava, with ex plosions at intervals of one-half to one-eighth second. The lava is thrown up almost continuously one hundred and fifty feet and occasionally two hundred and fifty feet high," says Kluegel. For several days, when the air was free from clouds, the fountains of lava were beautifully exhibited from the Volcano House both day and night. The fountain constantly shifted its position, and when nearest the edge of the cone the falling clots resembled spangles of gold in the night-time. Plate 21 shows the condition of things on July 19, as photographed by C. C. Langill, whose camera was evidently situated on the third cone, the one shown on the left of the principal vent. It proves the ejection of lapilli and vapors from the orifice.