Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-04-28
.QD0lo S;tatesnrarr.
Terribly Sublime SpectacIe-A
Column of Fire One Thousand
Feet i'm Hight, and a River Of
Flame Thirty.fiye MILES Long.

Flame ThirIy.1iVe Miles Long.
A Jet of lava of more sUupendous propor-
tions than any ever conceived of is descrb-
ed by Mr.. COan in the Honolulu Friend of
February, in his account of the eruption OF
Manua Loa, on the Island of Hawaii:
The eruption commenced near the sum
nit of the mountain, and only five or six
miles souteastof the eruptionin in lS43. For
two days this summit crater sent down its
burning floods along the northeastern slope
of the mountain; tnen suddenly the vale
closed, and the great furnace apparently
ceased blast. After thirty-six hours the
fusia was seen bursting out of the eastern
side OF the mountain, about midway from
the top of the base. .
1t would seem that the summit lava had
found u subterranean tunnel, for half way
down the mountain, when coming to a
weak point, or meeting some obstruction,
it burst up vertically, sending column
of incandescent fusia one thousand feet
high into the air. This fire jet was about
one hundred feet in diameter and it was
sustined for twenty days and nights, varying
in hight from one hundred to a thousand
feet. The disagreement from the mount
ain side was often with terrific explosions,
which shook the hills, and with detOnatons
which were heard for forty miles. This
column of liquid fire was an object of sur
passing brilliancy, OF intense and awful
grandeur. AS the jet issued from the aw-
full orilice it was at white heat. AS it as
cended higher and higher, it redeemed, like
fresh blood, deepening its color, until, in
is descent, much OF it assumed the color OF
clotted gore.
Ina few days it had raised cone some
three hundred feet high around the burn
ing orilice, and as the showers of burning
minerals fellin liyid torrents upon the cone,
it became one vast heap of glowing Goals,
flashing and quiYering with restless action,
and sending out the heat of ten thousand
furnaces in full blast. The struggles in dis
gOrging 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 tuns of mineral
fusia into the throat of the crater, and over
a cone of glowing minerals, one mile IN
circumference, was sight to inspire awe
and terror, attended with explosive shocks
which seemed to rend the muril ribs of the
mountain, and sound to waken the dead
and startle the spirits in Hades. From this
fountain a river of fire went rushing and
leaping down the mountain with amazing
velocity, filling up basins and ravines, DASH
ing over precipices, and exploding rocks,
until it reached the forests at the base of the
mountain, where it burned its fiery way,
consuming the jungle, evaporating the
water down the trees, and sending up
clouds of smoke and steam and murky
columns of fleecy wreaths to heaven.
All Eastern Hawaii was sheen of light,
and our night was turned into day. So
great was the illumination at night, that
one could read withouta lamp, aud labor,
travelling and recreation might 90 on us in
the daytime. Mariners at sea saw the light
at two hundred miles distance. 1t was a
pyrotechnical display, more magnificent
and marvellous than was made by any earth
ly monarch. In the daytime the atmos-
pheIe for thousands of square miles would
be filled with a murky haze, through which
the sunbeams shed pale and sickly light
| Smoke, steam, gases, ashes, cnders-fur-
mace or capillary or Elementary vitriiac-
| tions called Pele's hair-floated in the air
sometimes spreading out like tan, some
times careering in swift currents upon the
wind, or gyrating in ever-changing cOlors
in the tittul breezes. The point from which
| the tire-fountain issued is ten thousand
| feet above the level of the sea, thus making
| the igneOuS pillar distinct object of obSer-
| vation along the whole eastern coast of Ha-
wall
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 bristling scoria,
he arrived near sunset at the scene of ac-
tiOn. 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 motion column
as it rushed upward thousand feet, and
fell back in a fiery avalanche which made
the mountain tremble. 1t was such scene
as few mortals ever witnessed. There was
no sleep for the spectator. The fierce, red
glare, the subterraneous mutterings and
strugglings, the rapid explosions of gases,
the rushes and roar, the sudden and start
| ling bursts, as of crashing thunder-all, all
were awe-inspiring, aud all combined to
render the scene one of indescribable bril-
liancy and of terrible sublimity. The rivers
of fire from the fountain flowed about thir-
ty-live miles, and stopped within ten miles
Of IIio. Had the fountain played ten days
longer, it would probably have reached the
| shore.