THE ERUPTION OF 1859.
This started at an elevation of ro,5oo feet on the north side of Mauna Loa and was observed by President Beckwith and Pro fessors R. C. Haskell and W. D. Alexander of Oahu College, Rev. L. Lyons of Waimea, Rev. Titus Coan, and by W. Lowthian Green. Most of these gentlemen have published their views of the phenomena from which it is possible to compile a satisfactory sketch. It is the only flow from high up the mountain which suc ceeded in reaching the ocean. There was an opening four miles higher up than the principal scene of display, for there is a nar row stream of lava following a crevice to the uppermost place of discharge. Mr. Vaudrey, an English traveler, happened to be upon Mauna Loa when this eruption broke out, and with his guides he hastened to this spot. There was a simple fountain of white-hot molten stone rising hundreds of feet into the air, and falling with a continual dull roar.
Rev. Mr. Lyons states that on Jan. 23d smoke was seen from Waimea gathering upon Mauna Loa. In the evening lava spouted out at the upper opening and soon another jet appeared at the lower crater. No earthquakes were noted in connection with this outbreak ; but between Oahu and Molokai parboiled fish were seen for several days after the 21st. At Honolulu the atmos phere was so thick and hazy as to cause excitement before the news of the outbreak came. The Oahu College party started for the scene Feb. 1st, reaching Kealakekua on the 3d of February. The stream had on Jan. 31st reached the sea at Wainanalii, a dozen miles south of Kawaihae, a distance of thirty-three miles, in eight days. From a distance of twenty-five miles liquid lava could `he seen issuing from a crater one hundred and fifty feet high and two hundred feet in diameter, spouting up to the height of three to four hundred feet. It was somewhat inconstant, at one time being very high and narrow at the top, and then quite broad with a less altitude. Two sketches show the conditions as seen first Feb. 6th and 7th, and then on the loth. Plate 16B. The
two craters on the last date were about eighty rods apart, sending up gas and steam with appearances of flame. The noise was like that of an ascending rocket, and occasionally like discharges of artillery. These two craters were half a mile above the place where the lava stream commenced, continuing in a winding river of light for several miles and then dividing into a network of branches.
Alexander says : "The two principal cones are about a quarter of a mile apart, the tipper one bearing S. E. from the other. They are about one hundred and fifty feet high and are composed en tirely of pumice and small fragments of lava which were thrown out in a liquid state. The upper cone was a closed crater, en closing two red-hot vent holes or furnaces, several feet in diame ter, from which it was emitting steam and sulphurous gas, and now and then showers of light pumice. The suffocating gases rendered it impossible to approach it except on the windward side. The lower crater from which the great jet had been playing two days before was somewhat larger, and a great gap was left open on the lower side through which a torrent of lava had flowed down the slope. We found a third crater above the two we have mentioned, which was still smoking ; and in fact we could trace a line of fresh lava and scoria cones two or three miles further tip the mountain." Mr. 1,V. L. Green visited the source of this eruption about the same time. When camped near the stream he heard explosions all night long like heavy cannon ; which he ascribed to an ex plosion under a stream of lava of highly heated compressed air. Fifteen miles below the source he estimated the height of the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night at 10,000 feet and the width of five hundred feet. The fountain seemed to him to have broken out at the intersection of two fissures, one leading towards the top of the mountain and the other at right angles to it.