The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-04-13
AFiery Fountain.

A Jet OF lava OF more stupendOu
/ proportions than any ever conceive'
: OF, is described By Mr.. Coan in tn
: Honolulu Friend of February, in hi
account of the eruption of Mauna Los
} on the island of Hawaii: ::
The eruption commenced near thi
, summit of the mountain and only five
or six miles southeast of the eruption
in lS43 For two days this summit
crater sent down its burning food
along the northeastern slope Of tbs
mountain; then suddenly the Valvs
closed, and the great furnace apparent
ly ceased blast After thirty-six hour
the fusia was seen bursting out of tht
eastern side Of the mountain, about
midway from the top to the base.
It would seem that the summit lava
had found a subterranean tunnel for
half way down the mountain, when
coming TO weak point, or meeting with
some obstruction, it burst up vertically,
sending a column of incandescent fusia
thousand feet high in the air. This
firejet was about one hundred feet
IN diameter, and it was sustained for
twenty days and nights, varying in
height from FIVE hundfed to one thou
sand feet The disgoEgement from the
mountain slide was often with terrific
explosions which shook the hills, and
with detonations which we're heard for
forty miles. This column of liquid fire
was an object Of surprising brilIiancy,
of intense and awful grandeur. As the
jet issued from the awful orifice it was
at white heat As it ascended higher
and higher it Redeemed like fresh blood,
deepening its color, until, in its descent,
much OF it assumed the color Of clotted
gore.
Ia a few days it had raised cone
some three hundred feet high around
the burning orifice, and, as the show
ers OF burning minerals fell in liVid
! torrents upon the cone, it became one
vast heap of glowing Goals, flashing and
! quiVering with restless action, and
sending out the heat of ten thousand
furnaces in intense blast The strug-
giles in disgorging the fiery masses, the
upward rush of the column, the force
which raised it thousand vertical feet
and the continuous falling back of
thousands of tons of mineral fusia into
the burning throat of the crater, and
over a cone of glowing minerals. one
mile in circumference, was a sight to
inspire awe and terror, attended with
explosive shocks which seemed to rend
the mural ribs of the mountain, and
sounds to wake the dead and startle
the spirits in Hsdes. From this foun-
tain q river Of ire went rushing and
leaping down the mountain with amaz
ing velocity, filling up basins and ra-
vines, dashlng over precipices, and ex-
ploding rocks until it reached the for
ests at the base of the mountain.
where it burned its fiery way, consum-
ing the jungle, eVaporating the water of
the streams and pools, cutting down
the trees and sending up clouds of
smoke and steam in murky columns
of fieecy Wreaths to heaven.
All Eastern Hiwaii was a sheen of
light, and our night was turned into
day So great was the illumination at
night that one could read without
lamp, and labor, travelling and recrea-
ton, might 60 on as in the daytime.
Mariners at sea saw the light at two
hundred miles distance. 1t was a py-
rotechnical display, more magnificent
and marvellous than was ever made by
an earthly monarch. In the daytime
the atmosphere, for thousands of square
miles, would be filed with murky
haze, through which the sunbeams
shed pale and sickly light Smoke,
steam, gases, ashes, cinders-furnace or
capillary or filamentous Vitrifcations
raIla1 Dalafa hsi HA,A.1 -
sometimes spreading out like a fan,
sometimes careering in swift currents
upon the wind, or gyrating in ever
changing colors in the fitful breezes.
The point from which the fre-fountain
issued is ten thousand feet above the
level Of the sea, thus making the igne.
Gus pillar 8 distinct object of observa-
ton along the whole eastern coast of
Hawaii
During the eruption the writer made
an excursion to its source. After three
days of hard struggle in the Jungle and
over fields, ridges and hills OF bristling
sooris, he arrived near sunset at the
scene of action. All night long he
stood as near to the glowing pillar as
the vehement heat would allow, listen
ing to the startling explosions and the
awful roar of the molten column, as it
rushed up thousand feet, and fell
back in fiery avalanche which made
the mountain tremble 1t wss such a
scene as few mortals ever witnessed |
There was no. sleep for the spectator
The fierce, red glare, the subterranean
mutterings and strugglings, the rapid |
explosions OF gases, the Tushes and |
roar, the sudden and startling bursts,
as of crashing thunder-all, all were
awe-inspiring, and all combined to rem
der the scene one of indesclibable |
brilliancy and of terrible sublimity.
The river of fire from the fountain |
flowed about thirty five miles, and stop |
ped within ten miles of Hilo had |
the fountain played ten dsys longer, it |
would, probably, have reached the
shore.