The Kanzas news., 1859-04-30
Great Volcanic Eruption Ia the Sand
Wich Islands. ,f. r--sE


The great volcano of the Nauns Loa OF
the Island of Hawaii has recently broker
out in volcanic eruption. This mountain i:
thus described By correspondent Of tht
New York Tribune: 5aE GC II flsi1rett
''The Mauna Loa, the most modern island
of the group, is the latest formed oi Hawaii's
mountains, and is yet incomplete. Viewing
it from Hilo. it presents the outline Of bow
slightly bent, and at that distance, 90 regu-
lar an are does its really rugged outline ap-
pear. that an artist who should truly repre-
sent it would be thought not to have copied
nature. II appears to be long. hence Its
name, Loa. But, viewing it from Wsimea
on the right from Konz, opposite, and from
Kau. on the left of Hilo, our mountain pre-
sents nowhere its end. and then you con.
ceive that it is an immense dome. That
seemingly low arch is the highest of Pacific
Ocean Mountains. But it is yet in its giant
youth. Every new eruption accumulates
new masses upon its broad crown. So that
the process of eruption is not depicting
one by which the mountain throws out its
own bowels, but one of building up, out of
materials drawn from depths so deep and
reservoirs so vast, that this vast base of 8
mountain is but nipple on the outlet of its
discharging vent. From what abysms this
heavy motion fluid is forced, and by what
omnipotent energy we cannot tell; not, in
deed, we may believe, from the surface and
crust of the earth, but rather from the CEN
ter, and that all its interior spheres is such
as this, which is for our safety, vented by
volcanoes.
The same writer under date of Honolulu,
Feb. l1th, says: -.~ }ns ell.
The stream of lava has reached the sea in
the short time of days, flowing a distance Of
forty miles, and first filing up an immense
valley in the mountains, beside sending of
numerous aborative side streams. It is still
discharging with undated vigor.
Our vessel made the Kona coast after a
short passage from Honolulu. not unpleasant
to those of US who have been accustomed
to inter-island navigation, and know how to
expect the worst from a passage in a sehoon-
er of hundred tons, destitute of most OF
the accommodations which, in these days,
pertain to Floating palaces"
A few miles south of the well known po-
tatoe port of Kawaine Ne perceived the
point of discharge into the sea. A cloud
Of steam rose in every fantastic form as the
motion lava met the briny element, which.
as if angry at this hostile intrusion, iashed
the beach with a serf of unusual violence.
The damage here sustained is insignih-
cant. The track of the lava Is over a coun-
try of old eruptions, unculIivated, because
entirely barren, and only very rarely inhab-
tied along the beach. A little hamlet was
destroyed-ousting houses-and grove of
cocoa-nut trees-a much more serious
loss than the former. We did not, however,
land here, Kailua being nearer place of ac7
cess to high point of the lava flow, as it
is diagonal and not direct to the sea. In
this old port, the decayed capital of Hawaii.
we dropped anchor. We were not unex-
pected. The new wonder has brought to
the natives market for some of their pro-
duce, their horses and their owu services,
of which they are not slow to avail them
selves.
We had brought our own saddles and our
own supplies and were soon supplied with
horses and native attendants. Leaving the
dry and arid beach. we step by step. attain
ed to region of vegetation and cooler air
and was soon passing through a tropical re-
gion of exuberant growth, glades of bread
fruit, varied by the rich gloom of orange
trees of golden fruit. crimson ohias, and
profusion of creeping vines. Our path was
rocky and steep, and we had time to see and
enjoy all these things. .- ~
So ascending with varying scene and eli
mate we reached camping ground at a dis
lance of perhaps sixteen miles from the
beach, ten miles short of the oriice of the
volcano and some thirty miles from where
it discharges into the sea, and near to the
flowing lava. Night was the time for obser-
walton. The before black and smoking
masses then shone out in hundreds of fiery
and the fountain head discios-
ed itself By a. jet de Feu varying from 200 to
800 feet in hight, and in diameter of base
500 feet as we coniectured from an examin
The front of the flow is about 5000 feet
in width, and slowly, irresistafly pushes for
ward its high red wall of fire. rising over
hills and falling over precipices with calm,
irresistible power, which humbies and bellt-
ties all human efforts. Above the crater
rose continually dense column of smoke
to the hight of, perhaps, 10000 feet. There
was not, however, with this as with the erup-
tons of Rtna and VesuVius, a discharge
of cinders, nor perceptibly even of steam.
The discharge was confined to the dense,
pure and perfectly fused heavy lava, and to
heavy boulders projected far above the foun
tain. and falling back again into the cal
dron. and sometimes without the rim, down
which they rolled, for a time glowing and
visible, soon turning black, and lost to our
sight. More like an 1celandic geyser, as
represented In our biographies than any
thing else was this object at the source
now rising, now falling. in columns. uni
ting, dividing, and jetting in spires, pyra-
mids, cones and columns. =
Next the crater the flow is not visible
from below, being in valley, after which
It divides itself into numerous streams oc-
cupying Eve or six miles in breadth. and
the descent being pFecipitous. the dow Is
rapid; but it soon reaches surface Of light
descent. and here the flow is slow and the