The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-09

eV0ne FENCES went down, and vast noun
tain masses rolled into the sea. One
missionary adds. so gravely that We
must not suspect him OF u joke, that
they prayed with unusual fervor and
sang
On JordanS stormy banks we stand.
And cast q wisllful eye
THE WORLDS eRANDEs7 VOLCANO
How the Lava Made Hawaii-Wild Life
Thereabouts.
have no spite against the reader of
this article. shall therefore not add
one to the 200 and odd descriptions OF
klauea now extant. AS the raw attor-
ney who began his maiden speech by tell
ing what the common law is was direct
ed by the judge ''to assume that this
court knows something and not be so ar
rogantly instructive" so shall assume
that the reader has read the old Fifth
Reader, and the usual Sunday school
books, and at least one general work of
travel, and that he takes at least one
good weekly paper, in which case he
must have seen half dozen descriptions.
will only say that of the manyfI have
read since leaving the islands that Of
Mark Twain seems to me the best, and
then go on to mention few points
which astonished me and are not gener-
ally mentioned in the accounts.
The first is the course of the lava.
had an idea that it dashed down the
mountain side in '.znad torrent" but
it doesn't. Atany rate it never does I'M
less when the quantity is enormous and
while it is still so hot as to maintain
great fuidity. Almost always-always
in small streams-it maintains sluggish
flow, like warm tar or thin 1nush, and
as it flows the surface is rapidly cooling
and forming sort of case. The molten
interior bursts up through this, and the
outflow cools again, and this is repeated
80 often that moderate stream of lava
often assumes the appearance of great
cylinder slowly creeping down. Even
when the outside seems comparatively
cool the thing is really an enormous
tube, down the interior of which the hot
and pasty lava is slowly forcing its way.
And this is the reason few or no lives
are lost in an ordinary eruption. One
can walk up to the advanced end of the
stream, gather little of it on an iron
rod, press it into mold Of any desired
shape, and all without danger, and this
though the cylinder or tube may be 10
feet thick. The second fact that aston
ished me was the location Of the crater
Mauna Loa is the mountain and Kilauea
is the crater, and Kilauea is not really
on Mauna Loa-that is, not on top of it.
1t is indeed but one-third as high, and,
so far as sea level is concerned, no higher
than Salt Lake City. 1t is. so to speak,
a boil on the flank of Mauna Loa, and
yet the crater itself does not overflow.
When the lava pressure becomes too
great to be restrained, it breaks out some
where away down the mountain side
By and by, the crock sharrs" say, it will
! burst out away off shore. and then We
shall have an addition to Hawaii.
Another fact. and very surprising
fact indeed to me, w. vt the nearer
enish the natives are.t This little fact
'stumps r.y philosophy" as they say at
Harvard, but it certainly is fact. In
did not see sign in the common life of
the people that there had ever been idol
atry there, but with every miles travel
toward the volcano saw more signs
; till, as we emerged from the forest on the
rock fat near the hotel, our native at
tendants showed themselves regular Pele
fanatics. Even "Old Antony" the guide,
recommended to us especially for his
Christian character, "backslid" when he
saw the smoke and limited that it might
/ be as we'll to gather some berries to offer
as a sacrifice This comical retrogrcs
sion in faith equally with progression in
altitude reminded me of the formula in
use in Texas when was there in 1851
There is no Sunday west of the Trinity
no law west OF the Brazos and no God
west of the Colorado"
They say that the topography is the
cause of this local backsliding. Maybe
so, but it is almost impossible to de
scribe the topography In truth, IL very
large part OF Hawaii consists of IL high
tableland iaclosed in sort of triangle
between the three great mountain psal.S
Of Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and 1Iallna
Hualalai. and this plateau is dreadful
wilderness of tropical vines and giant
trees, growing among and hiding I'M
nense rocks and crevices, with here and
there bare field of splintered lava OF
loose ashy stuff, and mI-e rarely a fertile
little valley In this region the cattle
introduced by early voyagers have left a
progeny as wild as Aany buffalo Of the
olden ti.aa and much more dangerous
But alona e borders of the island, the
north esp: ally, are some wonderfully
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