Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1859-06-03
Great Eruption of Mauna Loa.


OF the Sandwich Isiands) has Just experien
ced one of its grandest eruptions. 1t com
) menced on the 23d of January, wthou
any OF the premoniiory symptoms of earth
quakes and subterranean noises, pouring
rapid stream of lava from an opening ahou
10000 feet above the level of the sea
The stream of burning lava reached tn
sea IN The space of five days, flowing fort,
mites, ii ling up an immense valley in III,
mountains aud sending off mary sid
streams. 1t is supposed tn the lava ha
covered about a thousand square miles 0
the surface OF the isanI. At Lahaina,
distance Of over one hnndr, d miles from
the crater, on Saturday night, the 29rl
i ct January, the volcano was distinctly visi
! Bile Illuminating one-tkird of the heaven.
| like that of an immea Sc and neighborine
co fiagratinn; and from elevated positions
It is asserted that the shoots Of liquid A me
could be seen at iutervales. as the immense
caudron boiled aud bubbltd' The sea
was lighted up with the reflection of the
/ flame everywhere within one hundred miles
of :he crater, and the coasting vessels
enjpved the advantage without the presence
OF a full moon. Lots of dead fi,h were OBJ
served floating about i" the nei3hborhood
of the islands, both before and since the
commencement of the eruption. and the in
ference is, that they were killed by the sub
marine fires or heat connected with the
volcano.
A party who visited the mountain de-
scribed the scene as inexpressibly grand,
but language cannot be- found to convey an
adequate conception of its impressivrness.
The eruption is on the west side of Mama
Loa. new crater, estimated at five To
eight hundred feet across. having formed
there from which the liquid mass was mo-
mentarily elected in Immense lets of a
thousand to fifteen hunderi feet high, AMI
falling over the sides, poured down towards
The sra. Before entering the sea it des-
troyed a native village and fine grove of
cocanut trees. and pouring into the bay
completely filled up the little horbor of
Wainonelai. The inhabitants of the ham
let were aroused at midnight, and had
hardly time tn escape, leaving their proper
ty To destruction. One young explorer of
the monniain met with a sad fate, falling
down jagged chasm thirty feet in depth
and fatally njuring his spine. A witness
of the sublime spsctacle writes to the New
York Tribune:
The front Of the floor is about 5000 feet
in wedth, and slowly, irresistihly pushed
forward its high, red wall of FIRE, rising
ever hills aud f,lling over precipices with
a calm, irreSistibly power. which humbes
and belittles all human efforts Above the
crater rose continually dense column of
smoke 10 the hight of, prehaps 10000 feet.
Th"re was not, however. with this as with
the eruptlonS of Etna and VeSuviuS, a dis
charge of cind RS, not preceptibly even of
steam. The discharge was confined to the
dense, pure and perfectly fused, heavy lava,
and to heavy bollers projected far above
the fountain, and falling. sometimes with
out the rim, down which they rolled, for
time Glowing and visible, soon turning black.
aud lost to our sight. More like an Ice
land'c geySer, As represented in our geoara-
phieS than anything else was this election
at the sOurce-now rising, now falling, in
columns, uniIng, dividing, and jetting in
spires, pyramids, cones and columns.
Mex the crater the flow is not visible from
heloW. Dtll9 IN NatleN. dlteF winch II ul-
vidrS itself into numerous streams, occupy
ing five or six miles in breadth, and the
decent being prrcipiious, the flow i. rapid
but il soon reaches surface of light decent
and here the flow is slow and streams main
ly concentrated INTO one. Occasionally
cascade was TO be observed. Conceive
Trenton falls metamorphoSel into fall,
no' of sparkling, foaming, white water, but
nf fluid iron, going over with sulen pitch, /!
bearing along cakes of black, congealcd la
va as Of ice. Set this scene against the
great side Of the mountain, in the night.
only lighted by Its own fires, wreathed BY
lis own smoke, and you have what we saw
that night from our mountain camp. Not
far below the crater, one of the new sid
streams had been damned up until lake
had accumulated behind the obstruction. !
md the weight broke it down, and the re-
eased Mass rushed down with tremend- |
ous noise and fury through the thick jungle,
cutting down the trees, rolling off huge I
Duuldcrs from its front Of twenty-five fee /
high, resembling a pile of burning Goals