, 1859-04-04

We hare dates from Honolulu to the 18th Of
February. The main item Of news is that tue
volcano Of Mauna Loa. on the island Of Hawaii,
tile largest Of the Sandwich group, has brokcn
out in IN eruption Of unparalleled grandeur. On
the mountain side, 1l,usp feet above the level Of
the sea, aud 4,Np below the snow covered sum-
nit, the lava bursts out, squirting up like fouu-
tain in jcts-sometimcs 5UO feet high, never less
than 250-and then runs in stream Of liquid
fire, half mile widc IS miles to the sea, sweep.
ing everything before it.
All accounts represent it us the most masnif-
cnt that has occurred in our islands within pres.
cnt memory. The heavens at night are fully
illuminated for hundreds of miles around and
the sea is lit up with long, slanting beams The
smoke las been scusibly perceptibic here, ut q
distance Of two hundred miles 10 windward, and
the light disccrncd. Out at Maui, distant half
did. As spectator informed me, it was like
the blaze Of thatched house within a stones
throw.
This Mauna Loa, on the Hawaii, the most
modern island Of the group, is the latest formed
Of Hawaits mountains, and is yet incomplete.
Viewing it.from Hilo, il presents the outline Of
Il bow Slightly bcut and ut that distance. so reg
uar an arc does its really rugged outline appear,
that IN artist who should truly represent it
would BE- thought not to baye copied nature. 1t
appears TO be long. hence its name, Loa But
riewing it from Waimea, on the right from
kona, opposite and from Kan, on the left Of
IIio, our mountain presents nowhere its end,
and then you conceive thut it is m immense
dome. That seemingly low arch is the highest
Of Pacific Ocean Mountains But it is yet in IFS
giant youth. Every new eruption accu1uu?ateS
new masses upon its broad crown. So that tho
process Of eruption is not a depicting one by
which the mountain throws out its own bowels,
but one Of building up, out Of materials drawn
from depths so deep aud reservoirs so vast, that
this vast base Of a mountain is but a nipple on
the outlet Of its dischnrginy rent.
4 gentlemen who visited the volcano on the
18th Of Feb. writes as follows:
Our path was rocky md steep, aud we had
time TO see and enjoy all these things.
So ascending with varying scene and climate
laps sixteen miles from the beach. teu miles
short ofthc ortce Of the volcano and some thir-
ty miles from where it discharges into the sea,
aud near to the flowing lara. Night wa. the
time for observation. The before black and
smoking masses then shone out in hundreds Of
closed itself by a jtt de Eau varying from 200 to
$40 feet in height, aud in diameter Of base 800
feet, as we conjectured from IN examination
at that distance. through our glasses.
The front Of the flow is about $500 feet in
width, aud slowly, iEresistibly pushes forward
falling over precipicrs with calm, irresistible
power, which hunlbles and belitlcs al hnman
efforts. Above the crater rose continually
dense column Of smoke TO the height OF, per
haps lp,'hA. feet. There was not, however, with
this as with the cruptinns ofEana and vesvius,
discharge Of ciuders, nor perceptibly even Of
steam. The discharge was confined to the
dense, pure and perfectly fused hcayy lara, and
to heavy boulders projected far above the foun-
tain, and falling sometimes back again into the
caldron. md sometimes without the rim, down
which they rolled for time glowing and visible,
soon turning black and lost to our sight. More
like an Icelandic Geyser, as asrepresented in our
biographies than anything else Was this election
at the source-now rising, now falling, in col
umns, uniting, dividing. and jetting in spires,
Pyramids, cones and columns: Ne1t the crater
the aow is not visible from below, being in val
streams, occupying 6yc or six miles in breadth,
aud the descent being PERCEPTIONS, the dow is
rapid but it soon reaches surfnce of light de-
scent, and here the flow is slow.and the streams
mainly concentrated into one. Occasionally Z
cascade was to be observed. Conceive Tren-
ton Falls metamophosed into fall not Of spark
ling. foamiug, white wafer, but Of fluid iron,
going orer With su1len pitch, bearing along
cakes Of black, congealcd lava rs Of ice, Set this
scene against the great side Of the mountain, in
the night, only lighted BY its own fires, wreathed
by its own smoke, and you hare what We saw
that night from our mountain camp. Not far
below the crater, one Of the new side streams
had been damned up until lake had accumnta-
ted behind the obstruction, and the weight broke
it down, and the released mass rushed down
with tremendous noise and fury through the
thick Jungle, cutting down the trees, rolling of
hugo eouiders from it's fIpnt Of tTentT-hTe feet
hiGh, resembling pile Of burning Goals.