The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-15
FIRE AND SMOKE FROM
MAUNA L0A'S Scared MOUTH

The fiery outburst of the great vol
cano called Mauna Loa has set the
scientists thinking. Can it be possible
that between the recent earthquakes
throughout Southern California and the
stream of molten lava from the scared
mouth of Mauna Loa there is some nat
ural connection? What more likely
than that there should exist a fiery
tunnel far beneath the ocean between
the American continent and Hawaii?
Whatever the truth, Mauna Loa Vom-
its forth fire and smoke and earth shock
and tidal wave accompany the eruption.
At this time of writing it is impossible
to say just what damage has been
done by the fiery monster, but such
cataract of lava could not flow down
the side of a mountain like Mauna. Loa
without the result being terrible in the
extreme. The lake of fire that has
formed in the crater of Mauna Loa IS
fully 100 feet across and from this white
hot lake there now rises a great foun-
tain of fire that bursts with a roar as
the disturbed monster of the mountain
belches forth every now and then
torrent of blazing houlders which fail
back into the magnificent lake to force
its contents nearer to the edge of the
crater, from thence TO flow down the
mountain side in ever widening streams
of devouring fire. Were we in close
cable communication with Hawaii We
should probably hear that the mighty
stream of lava is approaching, If it has
not already overwhelmed, the town OF
Hilo, the second largest in the Ha-
waiian group. and the largest town on
the island of Hawaii, the capital, Homo
lulu being not upon Hawaii, but Oahu
island The polyglot population of this
town consisting of Asiatics, Polyne-
slams, Europeans and Americans, have
been knit in a bond of unity under the
common danger and We're, from the last
advices from the scene of the threat
ened catastrophe, fighting fire with fire
by bringing dynamite to bear on the
river of lava in an effort to turn it from
its course into a less dangerous direC-
ton If they do not succeed, then an
other Pompeiian horror may be intiict-
ed on us, for the habit of the volcano
is once aroused, to keep up Its frlShtlul
flow of fire for weeks and even months.
On the Kau side the volcano has done
immense damage. There are. or were
when I was there, many fine houses
and valuable plantations in the track
of the fiery river and these have been
overwhelmed thesonly living thing lett
being the white hot ashes that pours
on relentlessly until it meets an eie-
ment more powerful than itself and dies
with a fierce hiss in the grip of the sea.
Hawaii is a cemetery of volcanoes.
There are scores to-day, some red ana
sullen, others hot and steamlng, ana
still others covered with thin smell
of lava But around these are nun
dreds of extinct craters, and these in
turn seem to have burst through num-
dreds of still older ones
/ visited many of them and each one
seemed more powerful than the pre-
ceding one. In one crater on Mauna
I4oa you could put all the houses in
greater New York and still have room
to spare. There are streams ana Gaia
racts of lava which chilled and hard-
ened as they moved in long dead ages.
The lava is everywhere. AT one point
il is new and fresh: a another II is a
fiery fluid and at a third 1T is SO an
cient and decayed as to look ike the
rotten stone of abandoned quafrles'
could not look upon these mute evil
dences of natures awful throes with
out feeling that>the earth might open
tomorrow and change the blissful
landscape into a raging hell. w nat
Vesuvius did to Pompeii and krakatoa
to Sunda Straits, Mauna Loa and Maui
ma Kea may do to the archipelago. We
suvius Aetna and Krakatoa together
would be dwarfed by Mauna Loa alone,
They built the islands in the beginning
and like Chronos they may turn ana
drown their own children.
In the stiffness of the night you can
hear the volcanoes talking. Their
words are made up of throbs and trem-
ors Now and then the voices rise into
subterranean noises and local eruptions;
Suppose that they one and all rOared
together, as they have done so often in
the long cycle of geologic time!
But let us turn to more peaceful
scenes. Hawaii is the royal garden of
ease. Its subtle influence permeates the
Pacific like the unseen thrill of far
off tornado. Around the islands as a
center the ocean forms mighty blue
mirror like a halo. When you are a
days distance from Honolulu the ali
grows balmy, the sky turns softer
blue. or robes itself in diaphanous
fleece, the sea changes from indigo tc
ultra marine sapphire and turquoise;
Gaily tinted fishes dot the water around