The Oskaloosa herald., 1893-02-09

two gallons and half you had better
not start around the world without
money.
Since the discovery of the volcanoes
of Hawaii they have had an eruption
about once in ten years, any one Of
which has left history enough to fill
large volume, but will give only few.
incidents. In 1852 Mauna Loa gave
one of the grandest exhibitions ever
seen. She threw column of lava six
hundred feet high, which ran down and
covered three hundred square miles of
country. In 1868 the fires again broke
forth and from the top of the noun
tain a fountain of lava played which
was two undred an fifty feet in diane,
ter and five hundred feet high. This
ran down the mountain in river q
mile wide, and forty miles long.
For three weeks it poured over prec-
ipice into the sea and heated the water
for twenty miles around, killing great
quantities of fish. For days together
the whole south end of Hawaii was ina
constant quiver and during an earth
quake shock mighty wave fifty feet
high rolled in from the ocean and COW.
cred all the south coast of the island,
carrying away half dozen towns and
many people. AT one place the noun
tain opened and shot out stream Of
mud at the rate of mile a minute. 1t
ran down valley and engulfed thirty
one people and large herds of cattleand
sheep. At one time so much smoke
| was thrown out that it darkened the sea
for thousand miles. In 1910 Kilauea
broke out. The people of Hilo were
greatly alarmed, for if the lava should
flow that way the devastation would be
terrible. Luckily the flow started in
northeasterly direction, reaching the
sea forty miles distant in four days.
The light was so great that people at
Hilo could read the finest print at mid
night. The last great eruption was in
1881. This time the lava moved very
slowly, consuming nine months in going
forty miles, and stopped within mile
of Hilo. The people had abandoned
the town.
| Nothing can equal the variety and
grandeur which lava flow leaves in
its track. Sometimes it moves in great
semi-circuIar waves which will stop and
harden, on the top of which others will
CONCEAL, thus forming hill having the
appearance of huge coil Of rope. Some
times the mass of liquid lava behind the
wave will break through its crust and
flow on, thus leaving a great hollow
shell, resembling fertilization. Again
a small stream will run down noun
tain and gradually CONCEAL until great
pillars are formed. l remember two
that had the appearance of the legs and
paws of lion. The surface of the flow
frequently freezes over like river,
which breaks up and is carried along in
drifts like ice. This will lodge In
gorges from which the liquid lava will
run and leave it lying in great
heaps. Miles of country are thus
covered with sheet lava, standing on
edge and in all manner of shapes, max
ing it almost impossible to pass over.
Sometimes the lava enters cracks in the
rocks and tears out large sections of
land with trees and animals, and bears
them away like floating islands. But
the tongue will tire of telling and the
ear of hearing the marvels of the Sand
wich Islands. Then why should we be
curious to know what the Creator did
in the beginning, for he who looks up
on Hawaii sees the grandest specimen
of His modern labors, and he who will
visit Kilauea can see God at work.