The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-02-10
Mauna L0a in Eruption.

seat of action. | had two natives for
companions, one serving as guide and
the other as helper, and my faithful
horse Grit bore all our necessaries on
his back. Our stock consisted of tent,
blankets, dried opelusa Ga species of
mackereD, hard bread, a few canned
meats and some medicines. We were
not long in reaching the woods, into
which we plunged, literally, for the mud
was so deep and the bog holes so fire.
quent that my horse could hardly get
through. This one place was the only
point for many miles through which it
| was possible to penetrate the woods.
owing partly to the mud and partly to
the jungle of tropical vegetation. How
| ever we emerged at last and found our
selves on the celebrated flow of 1855,
the one which had threatened Hilo with
/ destruction. Here we filled our can
teens. for we had hot, hard tramp of
/ nearly fifteen miles before US, overra
.laya-bed.4 that bad neither grass nor
water anywhere on it. Here the lower
forms of vegetation were at work soft
ening the surface and preparing the
way for the higher FORMS And vet,
after twenty-five years, this hard sur
face now feeds only few ferns and a
dwarf ohia here and there. "A graEish
white lichen, looking Like curly wool,
covers the surface. Here we found a
mammoth trunk of a tree that had
withstood the march of the lava. The
molten stream had flowed on all sides
and ignited but not consumed it before
the lava had CONCEALED. and then,1 all
burned below, this trunk had fall
en- on the cooled crust, leaving a
deep hole, into which we peered
without seeing the bottom. The
rapidity with which lava cools was
forcibly shown in the fact that while
the lower portion of the tree was burned
it left behind it mould very nearly APP
proximating to the circumference, of
the tree. while, without doubt, the lava
was flowing past this point for months
afterward. The rays of the sun as they
came to our faces from the radiatinr
surface of the lava were fierce enough.
There are. two kinds of lava and the
native names are as good as any. That
which flows along smoothly like a
liquid, and is really the true lava, is
called pahoehoe; the rough, scraggy
scoria that looks like so much Stag from
a smelling furnace, is aa. Our road as
it ran along on the1pahoehoe was rea-
sonably fair, but whenever we struck
the aa it was tedious enough. Nothing
like it can be imagined. It wears the
horses shoes as rapidly as grindstone
does soft -bladed knife. Ny horses
feet were dropping blood at every step
from the cuts above his hoofs. Again
and again my natives had to call a halt
to repair damages to- their kamas-a
sort of sandal made of stout, rawhide
or old hard leather And nv own
stout, thick-soled walking shoes were
fast grinding down to the uppers,
though l rode part of the way. It was
truly "a weary land" without 1.-the
shadow of rock'' to screen us from
the torrid rays of a midday tropic sun.
Acres of IA lay above us in their own
peculiar and horrid confusions. Jagged
points ready to stab and sharp edges
ready to cut; lance and battle-ax and
trident; all in cruel array, and abattis
that nature only, in one of her ugliest
moods, could devise, And could we
hope to scale it? Boldly we advance,
when a sudden detour takes us right
though this jungle of surgical instru-
ments in bridle-path to the welcome
woods, where are water and grass and
wood and rest. d This is Halealoha, or
the House of Love, and hut for trav-
elers has been erected in this cool and
grateful spot, We seemed to be under
the very wing of Mauna Kea, which
lowered allowed us in solemn grandeur.
This mountain is fifteen or twenty
miles nearer Hilo than Mauna Loa, and
was the point from which l expected to
make my observations. Here we slept
with our great campfire roaring, bliss
fully ignorant of the. fact that a great
lava-tioW was creeping straight towards
us. only four or five miles away.
The, next morning we pushed on
through the woods, up and along the
slope of the Mauna Kea until we reached
a good camping ground in mamane
grove, 1000 feet above sea-level, on a
spur of the mountain, directly across
from the fires on Mauna Loa. Here we
had fine command of the great interior
slope between the two mountains, and
could plainly follow the recent flow
from its point Of outbreak to its very
front. 1t was smoking and steaming,
but looked as black as line of coal
heaps. In our course we had worked
around the stream until we were. in
north and south line from the base of
the mountain, where the lava had rushed
down, at a distance of only seven or
eight miles. '91'i-ti ',''isAt''1 =. ..s;5s
I That night we had a fine display. A
great smoke, highly Illuminated, was
ascending over the southern slope of
Mauna Loa, in the direction of Kilauea.
The clouds to the west of the mountain
were almost aiame with light reflected
from the Kau fow,. which could not be
seen from this point. Right in our
faces, with not cloud to obstruct our
view, was the burning mountain side.
In the summit crater the dense smoke,
glowing with the light of the molten
material, was surging back and forth
like biflows of fire, while now and then
a small fountain of lava would be thrown
above the level of the brink, showing i
what a boiling, seething mass was below. 4
Lower down were immense pits and
openings, in which the liquid lava itself
could be seen moving, as though en-