The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-10
HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES.
Lava EruptiOns of a Century-A Mis-
sissippi of Molten Rock.

|
From Kingston Oamaica) Daily Cleaner.
| Lava is the chief eject of these island
volcanoes, and is so thin-almost like mol
ten glass-that when the wind catches 1t
up, it is drawn into slender filaments,
which go by the name of 'Pele's Hair"
Pele having been In the old Hawaiian
mythology, the goddess who presided over
the action of these fire fountains and
had her seat in the crater. Some of these
are of prodgious extent; for instance, that
of 1852, which proceeded from an eruption
of Mauna Loa, formed an unbroken foun-
tain of lava 200 to 700 feet high and 1000
feet broad, though it did not burst out
of the crater, but from the base of the
cone.
The first eruption of which we have q
distinct record occurred in 1889. 1t was
accompanied by fearful earthquakes, dense
darkness and terrific thunder and light
ming. An island war was raging at the
time, and body of men marching from
I5no to Kau were encamped by the vol
cano when the outburst began. Terrified,
they halted for two days, and on the
started at short intervals. OF the fore
most company some were burnt to death
by sand and cinders thrown to an i'm
mense hight, and overwhelming them. The
third body escaped almost uninjured but
on coming up with the center party they
found only corpses of men. women and
children. Contrary 10 the rule, the erup-
ton seems to have consisted solely Of
sand and scoriae, with volumes of steam
and sulphurous vapor. In 1923 the lava
stream was thirty miles long.
In 1910 the bed of the crater of Kilauea
sank about 300 feet, her fires vanished I'M
der ground with roaring and much COM
motion, till they broke open passage in
the district of Puma, when they rolled on
ward burning forests, villages and planta-
tions-a terrific food, from one to three
miles wide and from twelve to 200 feet in
depth, varying with the extreme irregu-
LARRY of the graund, and having travelled
distance of 1870 miles in four days, 1t
entered the sea seventeen and one-half
miles from Hio leaping a basaltc preci-
pice about fifty feet in hight, and forming
a magnificent fire-cataract a mile in
width" All the time the surface was so
c,ouded in steam and smoke that those
standing on one side of the lava river
could not see 10 the other shore Some
Zines this mississippi of molten mate
rowed as it rushed through deep valleys
finally leaping into the sea in a cataract
like Niagara, In a raging blood-red tor
rent" For three weeks, we are told. the
flow continued The sea boiled and ragged
madly as the torrent mingled with its
water. For twenty miles along the coast
the waves were warm, and myriads Of
dead fishes 1oated on the waves. So in
tense was the glare that a places forty
miles distant a fine print could be read
all night by is lurid glow, and ships 100
miles at sea beheld the strange light"
On the 18th of January, 1887, after vio-
lent earthquake shocks, which continued
for several days almost without interrupt
ton, Mauno Loa broke forth In a lava
stream which coursed down the southwest
side of the mountain. entering the sea two
miles north of that of 1868, though the
issure from which it flows Is twelve miles
farther up the mountain, or twenty-one
miles from the ocean. 1t was extremely
copious, rising in several large fountains
from 1870 to 200 feet high, and reached the
sea in twenty-six hours in a current aver
aging about three-fourths of a mile IN
breadth, leaving behind il a hldeous en-
bankment Of chnkers, through the assures
IN which, for several days subsequently,
! abe fiery interior was disclosed.