Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-05-17
TIE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Further Details of the Eruption
FrightfuI but Magnificent Scene.
A Ill L. IL. NJ. IL Ill l. ]

FFightIul bat Magnificent Scene.
1 a special to the New York Herald, dated
Honolulu, April Is, ria San Francisco,
May s, says:
For fifteen days the district Kona has
been the center Of motion for the great
/ eruption. A gigantic stream Of molten
| lava is flowing from the summit Of Mauna
Loa across the lands Of Kakuka and Poak
| mi to the sea at Kaalnala landing. The
slope and part Of the summit Of noun,
tain fifteen hundred feet high have been
lifted up boldly by the earthquake and
thrown over the tops Of trees for a distance
| Of over one thousand feet. At Wahoinee
a creek has opened, extending from the
sea. 10 as high as the eye can reach on
the slope Of Mauna Loa the lava is from
one to seven feet in width, and an eruption
OF moist clay was thrown from the side Of
the mountain, between Lyman's and Rich
ardsoR's, a distance of two miles and three
quarters, with a width of one mile, in the
short space Of three minutes. This terrible
eruption overwhelmed houses, persons and
hundreds Of animals, aad scattered death
and destruction wherever the ciSy- fell.
A cOllma Of smoke seven and four-iftbs
AAAaEn Al dthlAAttiE war iiAAONu Out Vi
b0a, obscuring everything for miles
around, save where the bright spiral pill
lars of fire flashed upward from the mouth
of the volcano. The sight was one Of the
grandest but most appalling ever wit
messed.
During the seVerest shock of earthquake,
which took place on the I'd of April, no
living creature could stand up for mo-
l.Ient. Immense bodies of earth were
tossed about at great distances. Not one
stone stands upon another as before in this
district. Immense precipices have been
leveled to the earth, and where the ground
was formerly smooth and unbrOken, for
miles around the earth has been rent
asunder and upheaved, forming gigantic
chasms and precipiees.
The entire Typographical appearance of
the country has been so completely changed
that even those who have lived in the
desOlated district all their lives can not
recognize it or point out localities with
which they were formerly familiar.
At the present moment the entire group
of islands is enveloped in a dense black
smoke, and the indications are that Mauna
Loa is still in active volcanic eruption.
AAONOA4DAaOY nj ~ ttb DAN II RAN
CISCO, May S.-Since writing lay last dis
patch further intelligence has been received
OF the great volcanic eruption. A vessel
has just arrived from Hawaii, bringing
later accounts of the lava flow and of the |
eruption in general.
The first stream of lava broke out from
the crater of Mauna Lon, some two miles
above the residence of Captain Robert |
Brown, and flowed directly toward it. II |
came down the mountain side in a broad |
stream, several feet in depth, and Travelled |
with snCh rapidity that the family in the |
house had barely time to escape taking /
away with them nothing but their clothes. |
The path which they took was perfectly /
free from lava; but ten minutes after they |
had left it and reached a point of safety, |
the entire road was covered with the fiery /
stream.
The lava pushed onward toward the sea,
and drove the water back with such vio-
lence that 1t became agitated and con-
vplsed, and hinge waves rolled toward the
ocean as if lashed to fury by a storm.
The scene at the Craters was appalling.
Huge rocks were hurled from their mouths, |
by streams of lava, hot and
red, which attained an altitude of one
feet. When il fell it rushed down
the mountain toward the sea at the rate of
nearly ten miles per hour. The new era
ter which was formed on the 9th of March
is over two miles in circumference II
vomited rocks and broad streams of liquid
fire, which Illuminated the night for an
area of over fifty miles.
The eruption still continues with unaba-
ted violence, and the scene is one of the
most terribly grand that has been witness
ed in modern times. From the crater of
Manua Loa the huge column of smoke con-
tinues to ascend, hiding from the view the
skies and Clouds and enveloping the entire
country in partial darkness. Every now
and then thick streams of lava shoot up
ward from the midst of the smoke, illumin-
ating everything for few minutes. Hun
dreds of Jets of flames burst from the lava
AID are thrown for distance Of a thou
sand feet. Shock after shock Of earth
quakes convulses the island, and ever and
anon the low rumbling sonnd which breaks
out from amid the din and noise of the
eruption indicates where the earth has been
torn asunder or where the sum-
mits of huge hills and mountains have been
hurled from their places and sent rolling
dcwuuard IN THAR ha.o