Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-05-26
MISCELLANY a.
. Terribly Sublime Spectacle.

February, in his account of the eruption Of
Manua Loa; on the Island of Hawaii:
The eruption commenced near the summit
OF the mountain, and only five or six miles
southeast of the eruption in 1913. lor two
days this summit crater sent down it's burn
ing floods along the northeastern, slope Of the
mountain then suddenly the vale closed, and
the great furnace apparently ceased blast>-v
After thirty-six hours the fusa was seen
bursting out of the eastern side of the noun
tain, about midway from the top of the base.
1t would seem that the summit lava had
found subterranean. tunnel, for half way
down the mountain, when coming to weak
point, or meeting with some obstruction, it
blrst up vertically, sending column of in
candescent fusia one thousand feet high into
the air. This fire jet was about one hundred
feet in diameter, and it was sustained for twen-
ty days and nights, varying in height from
one hundred to q thousand feet. The dis
gorgement from the mountain side 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 brilliancy, of intense and awful
grandeur. as the jet issued from the awful
orltice 1t was at white heat. AS it assembled
higher it reddcned like fresh blood, deepening
Its color, until, in its descent much of it as
aumed the color of clotted gore.
In few days it had raised cone some three
hundred feet high AROUND the burning orifice,
and as the showers Of burning. minerals fell
IN livld torrents upon the cone, and CULVER
erlng, with restless action, and sending out, it
became one vast heat of glowing Goals, flash
ing the heat Of ten thousand furnaces in, full
blast. The struggles in disgorging the fiery
masses, the Upward rush of the column, the
force which raised it one thousand vertical feet
and the continuous falling back of thousands
of tons Of mineral fusia into the throat of
the crater, and over a cone of glowing min
erals, one mile in circumference, was Il sight
to inspire awe and terror, attended with ex-
plosiya shocks which seemed to 1end the mu.
raj ribs of the mountain, and sound to waken
the dead and startle the spirits in Hades.--
From this fountain river of fire went rush
ing and leaping down the mountain with anna
zing velocity, filling up basins and ravines
dashing over preoipices, and exploring rocks,
until it reached the forests at the base of the
mountain, where it burned its fiery way, con
auming the jungle, evaporating the water of
the streams and pools, cutting down the trees
and sending up clouds Of smoke aud steam,
and mulky columns and heecy wreaths to
heaven.
All Eastern Hawaii 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
recreation might go on as in daytime. Mari.
ners at sea saw the light at two hundred miles
distance 1t was a pyrotechnica display
more magnificent and marvellous than was
made by any earthly monarch. In the daytime
the atmosphere for thousands of square miles
would be filled with murky haze, through
which the sunbeams shed pale and sickly
light. Smoke, steam, gases, ashes, cindcrs-
furnace-or capillary or Elementary vtrfca-
tons called Pele's hair--Roated in the air,
sometimes spreading out like a fan, some
times carccring in swift currents upon the
wind. or gyrating in cverchanging colors in
the ftfu breezes. The poiut from which the
fire fountain issued is ten thousand feet above
she level of the>sea, thus making the ingenious
pillar distinct object Of observation along
She whole eastern coast Of Hawaii.
During the eruption the writer made an
excursion to the source. After three days
OF hard struggle in the jungle and over fields,
ridges and hills of brstling scoria, he arrived
near sunset at the scene of action. All night
long he stood SO near to the glowing pillar as
the vehement heat would allow, listening to
the startling explosions and the awful roar of
the molten column, as it rushed upward thou
sand feet, and fell back na fiery avalanche
which made the mountain trembc. It was
such scene az few mortas ever witnessed
IkNoSn y n - y