The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-01-19
TIE PACIFIC
SATURDA Y. JANUARY 10.
One Night with Mauna Loa.
BY MISS COAN.

1t was a night in 1856, but who of that COM
pany of boys and girls will ever forget it?
We had come on foot, from our homes on the
sea shore, six miles distant, to watch the most
magnificent fire that ever burned. 1t burst out
suddenly, in the dead of night, from a mountain
fourteen thousand feet high and thirty miles
away-so suddenly that the glare woke US IN
stantIy. From our windows we watched the
great torrent of lava creep down the side OF the
mountain like a frey snake. AT the base OF
the mountain it plunged into a tropical jungle
at which it gnawed for thirteen months. had
it eaten its way through this belt of timber 1T
would have flowed to the sea and destroyed
Hilo, the largest and most beautiful village on
the island of Hawaii.
Mauna Loa, or Long Mountain, is in the
Hawaiian islands, and about once IN every eight
years it treats the inhabitants to q grand erup-
ton.
Now, there's a great deal of fun to be gotten
out of a volcano that is kind enough to come
within reach and allow itself to be played with.
If the lava spouts from a crater you can poke 1t
with long sticks and the heat makes you stand
at a very respectful distance but If 1t flows
on a plain and spreads itfelf out-then there's
fun for you at least so we children thought
in 1856.
The night of which L write was a beautiful
one. Millions of stars were shining over our
heads, and as many millions, il seemed to us,
on the earth beneath. At our feet, and stretch
ing away for miles and miles, was the vast,
black, lava flow, dotted all over with lights that
had not yet gone out.
The stream where we found it in the woods,
was about a mile wide in some places it was
miles wide. Lava, on a plain, moves very slowly
and peculiarly not at all as a great mass of
molasses would, for instance--it cools too quickly
for that. And so there was no danger in going
directly up to the flow and camping in its path.
We escape d, that is we got out our supply
of iron spoons, copper and silver coins, cut long
poles from the forest trees, tied pocket-handker-
chiefs with eyeholes in them over our faces, and
sat down close to the great, black stream that
looked so dead. 1t had piled itself up all along
the line of advance, making a sort of wall from
one to several feet high.
By-and-by, a spot on this cooled surface be-
gan to move and throb and lift itself as though
there were a living thing underneath, struggling
to get out. Suddenly a crack opened and a
gallon or more of white-hot lava gushed out,
turning red almost instantly, it cooled so quickly.
The moment the crack opened we plunged in
our sticks and spoons and dipped them out.
But how fast we had to work 1t cooled SO
rapidly that we had hardly time to mold our
3 specimens" We rolled the lava on the ends
of our blazing sticks, over and over on the rocks,
forming it into cylinders. The spoonfuls we let
cool in the spoons to show that it was dipped
up while liquid. We jammed coins into red-hot
Jumps of lava, where they became firmly i'm
bedded.
Sometimes we all poked away at one opening
in the flow and then, of course, the boys got
the best of it; and sometimes we were lucky
enough to have an opening apiece, where we
could work without interference. We ran our
sticks full length into these cracks and drew
them out flaming from end to end, showing
that beneath the surface of the stream the lava
was molten. 1t was only a thin crust that COW
cred the fire, as ice covers deep water, and
though this bore our weights it was too hot to
walk upon it scOrched our shoes.
One of the boys took a running step or two
an fhn rn1 hot 1Orn nn1 W. tInf xnr kHIol-
enough to bear him up.
A little lava only flowed from a crack and
cooled this, in its turn, burst open and sent
on a little more, and in this slow way the stream
pushed itself along. Sometimes it would not
advance half a mile in weeks.
Once, while we were watching it's curious be-
havior at some distance, it crept quietly around
the rock on which we stood, and almost made
us prisoners. A few nimble steps, for it was
hot, and we were safe on the rocks beyond.
By-and-by the cry was raised that the lava
had gotten into the bed of a river near by, and
was flowing along in a solid mass like thick
molasses that it would soon reach a precipice
about thirty feet hight and pour over it into a
deep basin of water. Off we ran, dropping
everything, to the spot.
Sure enough soon, on the top of the preci-
pice, a great mass of fiery red lava lifted, hung
a minute, and then plunged over into the water.
There was q great cloud of steam and a roar
and hiss as though wild animals were attacking
each other. The water fought bravely, but it
was of no use-it could not put the fire out.
The lava poured into it until not a drop was
left and the basin was filled with solid rock.
The night air was filled with the sound of
falling trees. The lava surrounded them and
cut them off like an ak, and they went crashing
down. Sometimes they lay unsinged upon the
cooled lava sometimes they went down on fire
from top to bottom.
We walked four or five miles on the flow,
picking our way between the dangerously hot
places. 1t was the most difficult kind of walk
ing. Cooled lava is not smooth like ice, but
is piled up in all sorts of ways. You 90 up
hill and down hill, around assures that you
cannot jump and over those that you can.
Down many of these we saw molten lava.
and out of many that looked cool, we drew our
alpenstocks ablaze. When breakfast time came
we hunted up a good, hot crack and cooked our
breakfast in it. We boiled eggs and made tea
and coffee over volcanic fires. The natives, when
they are near the volcano, always roast their
meats in steam cracks.
We trudged back to Hilo, laden with speci-
mems, and well satisfied with our nights work.
The great flow moved on slowly for about
a week longer. 1t tumbled over one more preci-
pice, filled up the basin at It's foot, and then
stopped forever-stopped within six miles of
our beautiful homes, and just as we were max
ing up our minds that it would destroy HiIo.
and that we must hy.
on, those sleepless nights, when the light was
so bright that it seemed as though everything
was on fire and days of anxiety as word came
of the lava's steady advance
But it stopped, and this flow now forms a
protection to Hilo, for another stream of lava
could not go over it but would be turned aside
by it Christian Weekly.
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