The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-07-24

the romantic, the wild, the wonderful, in the banks,
the narrows, the widenings, the rocks, the rapids, the
cascades, the basins, the caves and natural bridges of
this solitary stream. Nor can l speak of the velvet
MOSES, the modest creepers, the rich ~festoons, the
sweet wild flowers, the gigantic ferns, the ancient for
ests, and all the tropical glories which are mirrored
iii it's limpid waters. We needed an artist and a nat
uralist to fix the glowing panorama, to paint the fora
and catch the fauna of these romantic soGtudes.
When we emerged from the upper skirts of the
woods, q dense fog obstructed our view of all distant
objects, So that we could not see the summit-tires nor
trace the molten stream down the slope of the noun
tain. We encamped early in a vast cave but du-
ring the night the stars came out, and the volcanic
fires played brilliantly from their high source, down
the mountain sides, over the scoriied plains, and far
down in the forest toward Hilo.
Early in the morning (Friday, the 5th,) we LETT our
cavern, and at u A. M. were on that black and
smoldering stream, for which we had been searching
for more than three days. Almost as far as the eye
could reach, these regions had been flooded with seas
of fusion-now, for the most part, hardened, but
smoking and cracking with heat and escaping gases.
We passed several miles up the left verge of the
stream, and finding q narrow, well SoHdl1ed place,
we crossed over to the right verge-our passage occu-
plying an hour and n quarter. We now assembled
rapidly along the right bank of the stream, sometimes
upon it and again skirting it, according to the facility
of travelling or the directness of its course. The
stream is very tortuous, making ample detours and
sudden zigzags, SO that we saved much by cutting off
pelIuS U L IOllOWluS lue UdScS U JIG CIIduSNS IlU
in it's course.
All this day we came to no open fire. The first
overfowings had stiffened and solidifed in contact
with the atmosphere, forming q broad ebon pail.
Under this self-made Counterpart the continuous
stream has formed a vast duct ; and in this subterra-
mean pyroduct it now flows like oil, at the depth of
from twenty to one hundred feet, unexposed to the
stifFening action of the air.
At night we slept on the higher regions of the
mountain, beyond the line Of vegetation, with the
Stag for our pillow, the heavens for our canopy, the
stars for our watch-fres, and Israel's Shepherd for
our guardian.
We were astir early on Saturday morning, climbing
over indescribable hills, cones, ridges, and masses of
hot and smoking debris and scoria, scattered wild and
wide over those Plutonic regions. We soon came to
q line Of Jagged cones with open Orlhces offrOm twenty
to one hundred feet in diameter, standing over the
molten river and furnishing vents for its steam and
gases.
We approached the vents with awe, and, looking
down their fiery threats, we heard the Internal sur
gings and saw the mad rushings of the great molten
stream, fused to q white heat. The angle of descent
was from 3 . to IS Q and we judged the velocity to
be forty miles an hour.
The maddening stream seemed to be hurrying on,
as if swift commission from the Eternal to execute
a work of wrath and desolation in the realms below.
Upward and onward we went-climbing ridge after
ridge, parched with thirst, painting in a rare atmos-
phere, blinded by smoke, almost scathed by heat and
excoriated by sulphurous gases.
All the rest of the way we saw frequent openings
into the fiery canal, upon whose arched ceiling we
walked Tor miles, with the fearful stream fuSnDn5 n1au
ly beneath our feet. At 1 p. NJ. we found ourselves
at the terminal crater and standing on its craggy and
smoking crest.
This was the<high fountain of eruption-the great
chimney whose throat goes down Unreasonable depths
into those fearful realms where mans eye never pene-
trated, and where he cannot look and live. For near
ly five days we had struggled to gain this point; and
now we were here-specks, atoms IN creatlon-obscur-
ed by smoke, startled by internal hissings, amid these
wild wondersathese awful displays of power which had
shattered such a tempest of fiery hail and raised such
a raging sea ofmolten rocks on these everlasting hills.
The grandeur, the s%ublimity, the terror of the scene
were unutterable. A vast chasm had opened horizon
tally on the top of the mountain, and along this yawn-
ing assure stood a series of elongated, jagged and
burning cones, about one hundred feet high, rent
through this larger diameter, and throwing up dense
columns Of blue and white smoke, which covering the
mountain summit, rolled in heecy masses down its
sides and spread out like the wings of chaos over I'M
measured regions. Still no fire could be seen In this
fountain-crater. We could feel it everywhere, and
we could see and hear it's escaping gases; but the
threats of the cones were clogged with hot masses of
cinders, pumice and ashes, with cracks, crevices, &c.,
for the escaping smoke. The fusion had long since
found vent in q lateral, subterranean duct, several
hundred feet below the rim of the Crater, and in this
covered way it flows oft until it makes its appearance,
&c described, some two miles down the side of the
mountain.
Nearly an entire year has passed since the erup-
ton commenced in August, 1856, and the flow, though
diminished, is still immense. Late adyices received
within a few days state that the fresh or molten lava
is not met with until about three miles above the low
est point it reached in November last, or about eight
miles from Hilo. The lava now appears to be spread
ing more Iaterally, bursting out through the old
crust and flowing off to the right and left. At pre-
sent there Is Nc danger, nor will there be any unless
the discharge should be materially increased.