did. We were unwilling to retreat; to deploy to the right or left
seemed impossible. We held a council, feeling that “discretion was the
better part of valor.” The bull was armed with ugly horns; we were
unarmed. He stood and we stood. Our guide, an old mountaineer, advised
us to arm ourselves with stones, and directed that when he hurled his
missile and shouted, we should do the same. We all hurled and yelled at
once. The proud monarch snorted, shook his head, turned slowly on his
heels, retreated a few paces, and then suddenly wheeled right-about
and again held the passage. We hurled another volley and shouted. The
Bashan bull wheeled slowly round, walked about a rod, and a second time
turned and faced us, bidding defiance. We feared a charge, but as we
had pushed our Goliath back some feet, we let go a third volley, and
this decided the conflict. He turned, but he neither ran nor trotted;
he maintained his dignity and retreated deliberately, while we waited
for his highness to disappear, without attempting to disarm him or make
him a prisoner. It was a compromise which we accepted thankfully. We
breathed easier and moved on with lighter steps.
This splendid eruption of 1852 was in blast only twenty days.
XXI.
_The Eruption of 1855--A Climb to the Source--Mountain
Hardships--Visits to Lower Parts of the Lava Stream--Hilo
threatened with Destruction--Liquidity of the Hawaiian Lavas--Are
the Lava-Streams fed from their Sources only?_
The great eruption of 1855-’56 continued fifteen months and the
disgorgement of lava exceeded by millions of tons that of any other
eruption we have seen.
It was first observed on the evening of the 11th of August, 1855,
shining like Sirius at a small point near the summit of Mauna Loa. This
radiant point expanded rapidly, and in a short time the glow was like
that of the rising sun. Soon a deluge of liquid fire rushed down the
mountain-side in the direction of our town.
Day after day, and night after night, we could trace this stream until
it entered the deep forest, when the scene by day would often be made
beautiful by the vast clouds of white vapor rolling up in wreaths from
the boiling streams and water-basins below. In the night-time the
spectacle was one of unrivaled sublimity. The broad and deep river of
lava, moving resistlessly on through the festooned forest trees, would
first scorch the low plants and fallen timber of the jungle, until they
took fire, when suddenly a roaring flame would burst forth, covering
perhaps a square mile, and rushing up the hanging vines to the tree
tops, leaping in lambent flashes from tree to tree, would make the
light so gorgeous that for the time being night was turned into day.
These brilliant scenes were long continued, and all Hilo watched the
progress of the stream with increasing interest.
[Sidenote: _The Eruption of 1855._]
On the 2d of October, in company with a friend and several natives,
I set off to visit this approaching torrent of lava. As the jungle
through which it was burning its pathway was too dense to be
penetrated, we chose for our track the bed of the Wailuku river, the
channel in which Mr. Paris and I went up to the eruption of 1843. We
slept three nights in the great forest on the banks of the river, and
the fourth night in a cave on the outskirts of the forest. Early in the
morning of October 6th we emerged and came to the margin of the lava
stream in the open plain. We had flanked it at the distance of some
two miles on our left, and its terminus was about ten miles below us
on its way to Hilo. Where we first struck it, we estimated the breadth
to be about three miles, but twice that width in places where the
country was level, and where it could easily expand. The surface was
solidified, and so nearly cool that we took it for our highway. And
highway indeed it was, for it was raised in some places twenty, fifty,
and a hundred feet above the old floor on which it came down. In some
places the walking was comfortable, and in others all was confusion
thrice confounded. Ridges, cones, bluffs, hills, crevasses, _aa_,
swirls, twistings, precipices, and all shapes congealed, were there.
No fire yet. Little puffs of white steam were coming up from unknown
depths below. Far down the mountain terrible fires were gleaming,
cutting down a mighty forest and licking up rivers of water. High above
us raged a glowing furnace, and under our very feet a burning flood
was rushing with an unknown commission, perhaps to consume all Hilo,
to choke our beautiful harbor, to drive out our people, and leave this
gem of the Pacific a heap of ruin. Thoughts of what might be could
not be silenced; like ghosts from the buried cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum, they haunted our path.
Onward we went; the ascent grew steeper. We were startled; a yawning
fissure was before us--hot, sulphurous gases were rushing up--the
sullen swash of liquid lava was heard. We took the windward side of the
opening, approached carefully, and with awe we saw the swift river of
fire some fifty feet below us, rushing at white heat, and with such
fearful speed that we stood amazed. The great tunnel in which this
fiery flow swept down was a vitrified duct apparently as smooth as
glass, and the speed, though it could not be measured, I estimated to
be forty miles an hour. Leaving this opening, we pressed forward, and
once in about one or two miles we found other rents from thirty to two
hundred feet in length, down which we looked, and saw the lava-torrent
hurrying toward the sea.
These openings in the mountain were vents, or breathing holes for the
discharge of the burning gases, and thus perhaps prevented earthquakes
and terrific explosions. They were longitudinal, revealing the fiery
channel at the depth of fifty to a hundred feet below, and exposing a
sight to appall the stoutest heart. To fall into one of these orifices
would be instant death. From 10 +A.M.+ we were walking in the midst of
steam and smoke and heat which were almost stifling. Valve after valve
opened as we ascended, out of which issued fire, smoke, and brimstone,
and to avoid suffocation, we were obliged to keep on the windward side,
watching every change of the wind. Sometimes hot whirlwinds would sweep
along loaded with deadly gases, and threatening the unwary traveler.
[Sidenote: _The Covered Lava-Current._]
In one place we saw the burning river uncovered for nearly 500 feet,
and dashing down a declivity of about twenty degrees, leaping
precipices in a mad rage which was indescribable. Standing at the lower
end of this opening we could look up, not only along the line of fire,
but also thirty feet or more into the mouth of the tunnel out of which
it issued, and see the fiery cataract leaping over a cliff some fifteen
feet high, with a sullen roar which was terrific, while the arched
roof of this tunnel, some forty feet above the stream, and the walls
on each side of the open space were hung with glowing stalactites,
tinged with fiery sulphates and festooned with immense quantities of
filamentous glass. At the upper end of this opening we cast in stones
of considerable size, and when they struck the surface of the rushing
current, they were swept from our sight with a speed that blurred their
form, and with a force that was amazing.
Amidst clouds of steam and the smell of gases, jagged fissures opening
all along the track and wonders of force arresting our attention, we
still ascended, until at 1 +P.M.+, October 6th, we reached the terminal
crater. This was Saturday and the fifth day of our journey, and we were
a little weary, but we set ourselves at once to examine this point
where the first red light of August 11th had been seen, and whence the
amazing flood of melted minerals had been poured out to startle all
eastern Hawaii. From this summit elevation, for six miles down the side
of the mountain we found a series of crevasses of a similar character,
but no rounded or well-defined crater. This upper cleft was wide, some
500 feet long, and indescribably jagged. It had vomited out floods of
lava which now lay in bristling heaps forming a scoriaceous wall 100
feet high on each side of the opening. These walls were so rough, so
steep, and in such a shattered state, that it was very difficult to
surmount them, but by care and effort we gained the giddy crest of
the one on the windward side and gazed down into the Plutonic throat
of the mountain. No fire could be seen. Blue and white steam with the
smell of sulphur came curling up from unknown depths below, while the
fearful throat that had so lately belched out such floods of fiery ruin
was nearly choked with its own _débris_. The action had ceased; the
fountain, no longer able to throw out its burning stream from this high
orifice, had subsided, probably a thousand feet, and found vent at the
lower point where we had seen the flow in our ascent.
We were now more than 12,000 feet above our home, and sitting on the
lip of this mountain mortar, we could meditate on its recent thunder,
and seem to see the belching of its fire and smoke and brimstone, while
its stony hail lay heaped around us. What a battle-field of infinite
forces in these realms of thunder and lightning, of stormy winds and
hail and snow, of rending earthquakes and devouring fires!
[Sidenote: _Sunday on the Lava._]
The source of this eruption is about midway between those of 1843
and 1852, and these three igneous rivers ran in parallel lines about
five miles apart. This eruption was also only a few miles north of
Mokuaweoweo, the great summit crater, whose deep cauldron has so
often boiled with intense heat, and whose brilliant fires have thrown
a sheen of glory over the firmament and lighted all eastern Hawaii.
Mokuaweoweo is probably the great chimney or shaft which reaches the
abyss of liquid lava below, and which furnishes the materials for all
the lateral outbursts of Mauna Loa, except for those of Kilauea, which
are independent eruptions.
It was evening before our explorations of the surrounding scenery
closed, and the next day was Sunday. Unfortunately our guides had
failed to supply our gourds with water. We had passed pool after pool,
and had charged our natives to be sure and fill the gourds in time, but
they as often answered that there was plenty of water further on. In
this they were mistaken, and we reached our destination with only one
quart of water for four persons. But we agreed to spend the Lord’s day
and offer our sacrifices of prayer and praise on this high altar.
It was cold and dreary, and our bed was hard and rough lava, but
raising a low wall of lava blocks, as protection against the piercing
night winds, we endured cold and thirst until Monday morning, having
no fuel--we were above vegetation--and only one-half-pint of water
each from Saturday until the afternoon of Monday.
In itself we would not have deemed it wrong to go down the mountain on
the Sabbath, but as our natives are slow to discriminate and reason on
points of religion, and as multitudes in all parts of the islands would
be sure to hear that the teacher who had so often dissuaded them from
unnecessary labor on the Lord’s day had himself been traveling on that
day, it was prudent to give them no occasion to stumble on this point.
I have never regretted the self-denial.
October 8th we marched rapidly down to find water. On our way we passed
the famous cone of one mile in circumference formed in 1852, and around
the base of this cone we found patches of white frost. So painful was
our thirst that we lay down and lapped the frozen vapor. A little
before noon we came to a spring of pure, cold water, and here we sat
and drank abundantly. At evening we reached Kilauea, a distance of
thirty-five miles from our morning position. Here we rested, explored,
etc., and on Thursday we reached Hilo, well rewarded for the journey.
It was all the way on foot, the whole distance being over 100 miles.
[Sidenote: _Second Visit to the Lava-Stream._]
On our return we found all Hilo in a state of anxious suspense, and
eager to hear what we had seen and what were the probabilities that
the eruption would reach the town. The light of the blazing forest
was evidently drawing nearer and nearer daily, but no one had as yet
penetrated the dense thicket of ferns and bramble and of tangled vines
and fallen trees. A few native bird-hunters had gone up some distance
into the forest, and climbed lofty trees to prospect, and had reported
the locality of the lower end of the stream. I resolved to pierce the
jungle if possible, and on the 22d set off early in the morning with
an English gentleman who had offered to accompany me, and with one of
the natives who had seen the fire from the tree-top. Upon entering the
woods we soon took the channel of a watercourse south of the Wailuku,
and wading, leaping from rock to rock, and crossing and recrossing a
hundred times to work our way along the margin, we advanced at the rate
of about two miles an hour.
Early in the day a cold and dreary rain set in, and continued all
that day and night. What with wading and the falling rain, we were
thoroughly soaked. But action kept up our warmth, and we pressed
on that we might reach the fire before dark. Several times in the
afternoon our faithful guide climbed trees in order to descry the
fire, and to determine its course and distance. The day declined, and
we began to fear that we should be left to spend a dark and cheerless
night in the forest without light or fire. At length, however, there
was a welcome shout from the last tree climbed: “I see the fire! it
is on our right, two miles distant.” We turned at right angles to our
previous course, left the water-channel, and began to cut and beat
our way through the thicket under a fresh inspiration. At a little
before sundown we reached the lava river, two miles, perhaps, above its
terminus. When within a few rods of it, and we saw its glaring light
flashing upon us through the jungle, my companion, who had never seen
such a sight, was startled, and inquired earnestly if we were not in
danger, and if the forest would not soon all be on fire and consume us.
The place where we stood commanded a scene of surpassing interest. We
estimated the flow to be two miles wide, and our view of it to extend
about ten miles, giving it some twenty square miles of area. Perhaps
three-fourths of the surface was solidified, but hundreds or thousands
of pools, and active fountains and streams of lava boiled and glittered
and spouted, presenting a scene of marvelous brilliancy and beauty.
The margin where we stood was hardened, but red-hot; open pools were
within a few rods of us, and cracks revealed the moving fusion below.
In order to warm ourselves, and partially to dry our soaked garments,
we stood as near the fire as we could bear it, on a little knoll under
a large tree about six feet from the margin and as many feet above the
stream.
[Sidenote: _The Lava-Stream in the Forest._]
Here we prepared our supper, hanging a small tea-kettle over the
red-hot lava on a pole, and toasting our ham and bread on a spit.
Rain fell during most of the night, and we could not lie down; so,
supporting our backs against the trunk of a tree, we watched the
marvelous scene until morning. The river of devouring fire was moving
slowly on toward Hilo, partly under cover of its own hardened crust,
and partly open to our sight. Near the center of the flow was an open
river, some half a mile wide, forming a central channel of lava, deeper
and more active than the rest, while lateral branches gushed out on
both sides, and boiling lakes and spouting jets abounded.
Two miles below us, along the whole front of the stream, a fiery edge,
like the front of a war-column, was consuming the jungle, and leaving
the giant trees standing in the burning flood to be brought down and
consumed in their turn. All night long we watched this process. Trees
of seventy feet in height and three or four feet in diameter were not
felled in an hour, but were gradually gnawed off by the continuous
action of the igneous stream. A large number of these trees fell, and
we were often startled by their crashing thunder, and amazed at their
heavy fall and plunge into the destroying current. Here they would lie
until they took fire, and then startling explosions would sometimes
occur, and the livid flames would rush and roar while these Titans of
the forest were consumed.
The more rapidly-flowing lava often submerged the trunks and branches
of trees, and during the consuming process the surface of the flood
would be covered with thousands of little points of purple and blue
flame of the burning gases coming up from below.
Great changes took place during the night. The mountain furnace was in
full blast, and millions of cubic feet of lava were rushing down in the
pyroducts to replenish this river and to push it onward to the sea. The
surface of the stream before us was constantly heaving and changing
under the force of these fiery dynamics. Large fields of the solidified
crust would break up like ice on a great river in spring-time, and
melt. There were detonations at various points, and the uplifting
and cracking of the crust would call our attention from one point to
another, while we noted that the whole surface of the flow seemed to be
rising like a river in a freshet. The hot and hardened lava near us,
where we had warmed our feet, dried our clothes, and cooked our supper,
had been melted, and a superincumbent stratum of liquid fire had raised
it nearly six feet, so that its surface was nearly on a level with our
hillock. Lateral streams, like skirmishers, were being pushed out, new
fountains were opening, and vertical jets were leaping and dancing
before us like ghosts in flame. A tree fell within a few yards of us;
and finally we heard the crackling of the brambles just on our left--a
small stream of lava, like a fiery serpent, was creeping along behind
us, while the rising stream on our right was about to go over the bank,
and thus we were threatened to be surrounded by a ring of fire.
[Sidenote: _Driven Out by the Fire._]
It was nearly daylight, and the rain and cold continued, but the call
to retreat was imperative. We withdrew to the rear. In about ten
minutes more our nest was covered with a fiery flood, our sheltering
tree stood in the midst of it, and the flames were running up its
clinging vines and leaping among its branches.
I had determined to find, if possible, some place where we could cross
over the lava-stream and go down to Hilo on the other, or north side.
Working our way along the southern margin, and searching for some point
where it should be so nearly crusted over that by zigzagging we might
reach the opposite side, we at length ventured, my companion and our
guide following me closely. We made a serpentine track, winding up
and down, and often diverging from our course to avoid open pools and
streams. But the hardened surface was swelling and heaving around us by
the upheaving pressure of the lava below, and valves were continually
opening, out of which the molten flood gushed and flowed on every
side. Not a square rod could be found on all this wide expanse where
the glowing fusion could not be seen under our feet through holes
and cracks in the crust on which we were walking. After venturing
some thirty rods upon this sea of fire, we saw just before us an open
channel of seething lava, some three hundred feet wide, and whose
extreme length above and below we could not see or measure. Of course
there was no alternative but to beat a retreat, and we worked our way
back to the place whence we started.
To many it may seem strange that any one should venture into such a
place; but to a person familiar with the movements of these igneous
masses, the danger is not alarming. Fused rock is heavy and of great
consistency, and when left quiet for a time under the atmosphere its
surface stiffens and congeals, so that I have often walked on a flow
that had been liquid only five hours before. We returned to Hilo to
report.
Still the eruption made steady progress toward the town, felling the
forest, filling up ravines and depressions, and licking up the streams
and basins of water in its way. It reached the banks of the Wailuku,
and lateral arms were thrown out into the river. Again I visited the
scene of action. Several ship-masters and other gentlemen wished to
join me, and my two daughters begged that they also might go. The
distance had been lessened to about fifteen miles, and after patient
toil over rocky precipices and wearisome obstructions, we reached the
flow before nightfall. A furious line of lava marked the lower end of
the stream, gushing out at white heat from under the crust that covered
it for miles above. This igneous stream had fallen into a stream of
water, and the conflict between the elements was fierce. The water
boiled with raging fury, but the fire prevailed, sending up spiral
columns of steam and filling the channel. To those to whom the sight
was new, it was overwhelming.
[Sidenote: _The Advance of the Lava._]
Near the margin of the flow we found a lava oven, red-hot, but not
fused, and near this, on account of the cold, we made our lodging for
the night. In the morning we retraced our steps to Hilo.
When the advancing stream was within ten miles of the shore, I pushed
through the woods again, accompanied by one native, to the lower line
of the flow. Here we found an advanced stream which had fallen into a
dry wady, and was coming rapidly down to a precipice of some seventy
feet, over which it continued to pour from 2 +P.M.+ until 10 +A.M.+
of the next day. My guide and I took seats upon the rocky roof of a
cavern in the center of the channel, some distance below the lava
cataract. Here we had a grand front view of the scene during the whole
night. The fusion was divided by rocks into two streams, and these
descended in continuous sheets through the night--where we were there
was no night--filling up the deep basin below, and changing the nearly
perpendicular precipice into an inclined plane of about four degrees
angle. This great cavity being filled, the lava began to flow down the
channel where we had established our observatory. The channel was full
of boulders and very rough, so that we sat undisturbed for some time;
but when the fusion began to enter the cavern on whose roof we were
perched, and we heard subterranean thuds, we were admonished to seek
other quarters.
As the weeks went on, I made several other visits to this lava
stream--eight, I think, in all--marking its rate of progress and its
varied phenomena, and concluding, with many others, that its entrance
into our town and harbor was only a question of time, unless the blast
of the awful furnace on the mountain should cease.
[Sidenote: _Alarm in Hilo._]
As the flood of consuming fire came nearer and nearer, the anxiety
in Hilo became intense. Its approach was the great subject of
conversation. In the streets, in the shops, and in our homes, the one
question was, “What of the volcano?” Watchers were out keeping vigils
during the livelong night. Merchants began to pack their goods, and
people looked out for boats and other conveyances, and for places
of refuge to escape the impending ruin. Every house near the lower
skirt of the forest was evacuated, and all the furniture and animals
removed to places of safety. Our inland streams were choked, and the
river which waters our town and supplies ships was as black as ink,
and emitted an offensive odor. The juices of vines, and the ashes of
thousands of acres of burnt forests containing charred leaves and wood
came into these streams, and the smell of pyroligneous acid was strong.
By day the smoke went up like the smoke of Sodom. By night the flames
arose and spread out on high like a burning firmament. We thought we
could calculate very nearly the day when Hilo would be on fire, when
our beautiful harbor would be a pit of boiling fury, to be choked with
volcanic products and abandoned forever. What could we do?
The devouring enemy was within seven miles of us, his fiery lines
extending two miles in width. Already had it descended on its
devastated track fifty or sixty miles, persistently overcoming every
obstacle; the little distance remaining was all open, and no human
power could set up any barriers, or arrest the on-coming destroyer.
All knew what we could _not_ do. Some one said: “We can pray”; and
I have never seen more reverent audiences than those that assembled
on our day of fasting and prayer. No vain mirth, no scoffing, no
skepticism then. Native and foreigner alike felt it was well to pray
to Him who kindled the fire, that He would quench it.