The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-10-21

flow broke, on August IL, from the north
eastern side of the mountain, lat height
of twelve thousand feet, and continued
with unabated energy until November %
of the following year. The stream of mol
ten lava was fully two miles wide, and it
spread over an area of three hundred
square miles, depositing thereon, it is reck-
oned, thirty-eisht billion cubic feet of
lava. Ravines and valleys were filled up,
and vast primeval forests annihilated. The
stream of destruction made its way straight
toward Hilo, and reached point within a
few miles of that town. A great panic
arose among the people. Rev. DIR. Titus
Coan, who was then at the head of the
Christian mission there, held special ser
vice of prayer for the preservation of the
town. And the next day the joyful news
went abroad that the flow of lava had in
deed stopped. Many of the natives were
so impressed by this incident, or coinci-
dence, that they Immediately abjured their
heathen worship and accepted Christianity.
A curious sequel to this story, however,
is also TO be told On November ), 1880,
there was another tremendous eruption,
and again the lava flowed straight toward
Hilo. For months it made its way un-
checked, and came to within a mile of the
town. The inhabitants prepared to flee.
Prayer seemed of no avail But then an
aged priestess went out to meet it, with the
incantations and rites of the old religion,
and threw innumerable pigs into the ad-
vancing torrent. Whereupon, to her great
ioy and the amazement Of the whole popu-
lace on August 10, 1881, the flow stopped
and the town was saved.
THE OUTBREAK OF MAUNA LoA.
Another great eruption occurred on
March 27, 1868, accompanied by series
of earthquake shocks that wrecked half
the villages ON the whole island Then a
vast quantity of mud was discharged from
the mountnin, pouring for three miles
down the slope in stream thirty feet deep
and half mile wide, and burying great
number of human beings and animals.
Then tidal wave fifty feet high rolled in
fran the ocean and swept away dozen
villages. The crater of Kilauea poured
out its lava through underground channels.
Finally, on April Z. the crater of Mokua-
weoweo burst through an underground
channel Five thousand feet up the noun
tain it spurted into the air in fiery foun-
tain hundreds of feet high, and then flowed
on to the sea. The distance was ten miles,
and it traversed it within two hours, des-
troying many houses and hundreds of cat
tie. The flow only continued four days.
OF this eruption Rev. DIR. Coan gives a
vivid account. "0n March q" he says,
sit began at G o'clock in the morning near
the summit of Mauna Loa. 1t gave no
forewarning; the fire burst up out of the
ground, throwing fountain of red lava
high in the air. Then great column OF
smoke rose up thousands of feet, arching
over to the east In few minutes three
more jets were thrown up toward the south
of the first; soon the red lava began RUM
ing down the sides of the mountain. At
Z o'clock we began to hear roaring sound
which grew louder and louder until the air
seemed to tremble with the roar of the
volcano"
After an hour there was pause, pain
full and ominous stiffness, and all waited in
apprehension for the next movement Of
the restless mountain. 1t soon came in the
form of an earthquake. There were 300
shocks in one day, and 1000 within a fort
night. The islaud seemed to be constantly
quivering, like the lid of boiling kettle,
and far underground people could hear the
rushing and roaring of the molten lava
floods in their subterranean channels. The
climax came on April ,. son that day, y
says DR.. Coan, ''an event occurred which
de6es description. Such an earthquake
has no record in the history or the tradi-
tions of these islands. 1t lasted from two
to three minutes, and was terrific. Houses
Jared, cracked, swayed and fell; most of
our stone buildings, the Hilo Jail among
them. Trees swayed aud fell, all the stone
fences went down; great powders were
toosed about like footballs; precipices fell
laundering into the sea. Riders and
horsemen were prostrated Our streams
ran mud. Within doors everything was
thrown pell.mel. My heaviest bookcase,
which stood southwest and northeast, was
overturned; while my case of shells and
minerals, which stood at the right angles
to this line, remained standing, showing
that the earthquake waves moved nearly in
the direction of the magnetic needle The
crust of the earth rose and sank like the
sea in a storm. 1t seemed as if the ribs
of the mountains and the granite pillars Of
the world were breaking"
After this the raging of the underground
torrents of lava could be heard for several
days, and the inhabitants were panic,
stricken, not knowing where it would burst
out, Their anxiety ended on April I,
when the great fountain burst and flowed
to the sen. Says one who personally
witnessed the scene: '.We found the
eruption in full blast. Four enormous
fountains, generally separated from each
other, but sometimes uniting laterally into
a linz a mile lono from north In sonth