OUR GREAT HAWAIIAN AND ALASKAN VOLCANOES.
BY TRUMBULL WHITE.
=Greatest Volcanoes in the World Are Under the American
Flag--Huge Craters in Our Pacific Islands--Native
Worship of the Gods of the Flaming Mountains--Eruptions
of the Past--Heroic Defiance of Pele, the Goddess of
Volcanoes, by a Brave Hawaiian Queen--The Spell of
Superstition Broken--Volcanic Peaks in Alaska, Our
Northern Territory--Aleutian Islands Report Eruptions.=
Under the American flag we are ourselves the possessors of some of the
greatest active volcanoes in the world, and the greatest of all
craters, the latter extinct indeed, for many years, but with a latent
power that no one could conceive should it once more begin activity.
Hawaii, Paradise of the Pacific, raised by the fires of the very
Inferno out of the depths of the ocean centuries ago, to become in
recent years a smiling land of tropic beauty and an American island
possession! Hawaii is the land of great volcanoes, sometimes
slumbering and again pouring forth floods of molten fire to overwhelm
the peaceful villages and arouse the superstitious fears of the
natives.
Alaska, too, is a region of great volcanic ranges and eruptive
activity, the Aleutian islands being raised from the bed of the
Pacific by the same natural forces.
The Hawaiian islands occupy a central position in the North Pacific
ocean, about 2,000 miles west of the California coast. The group
includes eight inhabited islands, all of volcanic origin, and they
are, substantially, naught but solid aggregations of fused, basaltic
rock shot up from the earth's center, during outbursts of bye-gone
ages, and cooled into mountains of stone here in the midst of the
greatest body of water on the globe. In many localities, however, the
accretions of centuries have so covered them with vegetable growths
that their general appearance is not greatly different from that of
other sections of the earth's surface.
The largest of the group is Hawaii, and it includes nearly two-thirds
of the total area. Here stand the highest mountains found on any
island in the known world. Only a few peaks of the Alps are as high as
Mauna Loa (Long mountain), which towers 13,675 feet above the level of
the sea, and Mauna Kea (White mountain), the height of which is 13,805
feet. In east Maui stands Haleakala, with an elevation about equal to
that of Mount AEtna. This extinct volcano enjoys the distinction of
having the largest crater in the world, a monstrous pit, thirty miles
in circumference and 2,000 feet deep. The vast, irregular floor
contains more than a dozen subsidiary craters or great cones, some of
them 750 feet high. At the Kaupo and Koolau gaps the lava is supposed
to have burst through and made its way down the mountain sides. The
cones are distinctly marked as one looks down upon them; and it is
remarkable that from the summit the eye takes in the whole crater, and
notes all its contents, diminished, of course, by their great
distance. Not a tree, shrub, nor even a tuft of grass obstructs the
view. The natives have no traditions of Haleakala in activity. There
are signs of several lava flows, and one in particular is clearly much
more recent than the others.
The greatest point of interest in the islands is the great crater of
Kilauea. It is nine miles in circumference and perhaps a thousand feet
deep. Nowhere else within the knowledge of mankind is there a living
crater to be compared with it. Moreover, there is no crater which can
be entered and explored with ease and comparative safety save Kilauea
alone. There have been a few narrow escapes, but no accidents, and it
is needless to add that no description can give anyone an adequate
idea of the incomparable splendor of the scene. It is, indeed, a
"bottomless pit," bounded on all sides by precipitous rocks. The
entrance is effected by a series of steps, and below these by a
scramble over lava and rock debris. The greater part of the crater is
a mass of dead, though not cold, lava; and over this the journey is
made to the farthest extremity of the pit, where it is necessary to
ascend a tolerably steep hill of lava, which is the bank of the fiery
lake. A step or two brings one close to the awful margin, and he looks
down over smoking, frightful walls, three hundred feet or more, into a
great boiling, bubbling, sizzling sea of fire.
The tendency of the current, if it may be so called, is centripetal,
though at times it varies, flowing to one side; while along the
borders of the pit, waves of slumbering lava, apparently as unmovable
as those over which the traveler has just crossed, lie in wrinkled
folds and masses, heaped against the shore. If one watches those waves
closely, however, he will presently observe what appears like a fiery,
red serpent coming up out of the lake and creeping through and under
them, like a chain of brilliant flame, its form lengthening as it
goes, until it has circumscribed a large share of the entire basin.
Then it begins to spread and flatten, as though the body had burst
asunder and was dissolving back again, along its whole trail, into the
fierce flood of turbulent fury whence it came.
Soon the broad, thick mass of lava, thus surrounded, which seemed
fixed and immovable, slowly drifts off from the shore to the center of
the lake; reminding one of detached cakes of broken ice, such as are
often seen in winter when the thaws come, or during spring freshets
when the streams burst their encrusted chains. The force of this
comparison is strengthened when those cakes reach the center, for
there they go to pieces exactly after the manner of large pieces of
ice, and turning upon their edges, disappear in the ravenous vortex
below, which is forever swallowing up all that approaches it, giving
nothing back in return.
Two kinds of lava form on the face of the lake. One is stony, hard,
and brittle; the other flexible and tough, similar to India-rubber.
The flexible kind forms exclusively on one side of the basin and
spreads over it like an immense, sombre blanket; and, as it floats
down in slow procession to the central abyss, occasionally rises and
falls with a flapping motion, by force of the generated gases
underneath, like a sheet shaken in the wind.
Occasionally, the fire forces its way through this covering and
launches huge, sputtering fountains of red-hot liquid lava high into
the air, with a noise that resembles distant bombs exploding; and
again, multitudes of smaller founts burst into blossom all over the
lake, presenting a spectacle of wild beauty across its entire surface.
In Hawaiian mythology, Pele was the goddess of volcanoes, and she and
her numerous family formed a class of deities by themselves. She with
her six sisters, Hiiaka, her brother Kamohoalii, and others, were said
to have emigrated from Kahiki (Samoa) in ancient times. They were said
to have first lived at Moanalua in Oahu, then to have moved their
residence to Kalaupapa, Molokai, then to Haleakala, and finally to
have settled on Hawaii. Their headquarters were in the Halemaumau, in
the crater of Kilauea, but they also caused the eruptions of Mauna Loa
and Hualalai. In southern Hawaii Pele was feared more than any other
deity, and no one dared to approach her abode without making her an
offering of the ohelo-berries that grow in the neighborhood. Whenever
an eruption took place, great quantities of hogs and other articles of
property were thrown into the lava stream in order to appease her
anger.
In 1824, Kapiolani, the daughter of a great chief of Hilo, having been
converted to Christianity by the missionaries, determined to break the
spell of the native belief in Pele. In spite of the strenuous
opposition of her friends and even of her husband, she made a journey
of about 150 miles, mostly on foot, from Kealakekua to Hilo, visiting
the great crater of Kilauea on her way, in order to defy the wrath of
Pele, and to prove that no such being existed.
On approaching the volcano, she met the priestess of Pele, who warned
her not to go near the crater and predicted her death if she violated
the tabus of the goddess.
"Who are you?" demanded Kapiolani.
"One in whom the goddess dwells," she replied.
In answer to a pretended letter of Pele, Kapiolani quoted passages
from the Bible until the priestess was silenced. Kapiolani then went
forward to the crater, where Mr. Goodrich, one of the missionaries,
met her. A hut was built for her on the eastern brink of the crater,
and here she passed the night.
The next morning she and her company of about eighty persons descended
over 500 feet to the "Black Ledge." There, in full view of the grand
and terrific action of the inner crater, she ate the berries
consecrated to Pele, and threw stones into the burning lake, saying:
"Jehovah is my God. He kindled these fires. I fear not Pele. If I
perish by her anger, then you may fear Pele; but if I trust in
Jehovah, and he preserve me when breaking her tabus, then you must
fear and serve him alone...."
It is needless to say that she was not harmed, and this act did much
to destroy the superstitious dread in which the heathen goddess was
held by the ignorant and credulous natives.
The history of Hawaiian volcanic eruptions tells no such tales of
horror as regards the loss of life and property as may be read in the
accounts of other great volcanoes of the globe. This, however, is
simply because the region is less populated, and their tremendous
manifestations of power have lacked material to destroy. There have
been fatal catastrophes, and ruin has been wrought which seems slight
only in comparison with the greater disasters of a similar nature.
In 1855 an eruption of Mauna Loa occurred. The lava flowed toward
Hilo, and for several months, spreading through the dense forests
which belt the mountain, crept slowly shorewards, threatening this
beautiful portion of Hawaii with the fate of the Cities of the Plain.
For five months the inhabitants watched the inundation, which came a
little nearer every day. Should they flee or not? Would their
beautiful homes become a waste of jagged lava and black sand, like the
neighboring district of Puna, once as fair as Hilo? Such questions
suggested themselves as they nightly watched the nearing glare, till
the fiery waves met with obstacles which piled them up in hillocks
eight miles from Hilo, and the suspense was over.
Only gigantic causes can account for the gigantic phenomena of this
lava-flow. The eruption traveled forty miles in a straight line, or
sixty including sinuosities. It was from one to three miles broad, and
from five to 200 feet deep, according to the contours of the mountain
slopes over which it flowed. It lasted for thirteen months, pouring
out a torrent of lava which covered nearly 300 square miles of land,
and its volume was estimated at 38,000,000,000 cubic feet! In 1859
lava fountains 400 feet in height, and with a nearly equal diameter,
played on the summit of Mauna Loa. This eruption ran fifty miles to
the sea in eight days, but the flow lasted much longer, and added a
new promontory to Hawaii.
On March 27, 1868, a series of earthquakes began and became more
startling from day to day, until their succession became so rapid that
the island quivered like the lid of a boiling pot nearly all the time
between the heavier shocks. The trembling was like that of a ship
struck by a heavy wave. Late in the afternoon of April 2, the climax
came. The crust of the earth rose and sank like the sea in a storm.
Rocks were rent, mountains fell, buildings and their contents were
shattered, trees swayed like reeds, animals ran about demented; men
thought the judgment had come. The earth opened in thousands of
places, the roads in Hilo cracked open; horses and their riders, and
people afoot, were thrown violently to the ground. At Kilauea the
shocks were as frequent as the ticking of a watch. In Kau, south of
Hilo, 300 shocks were counted during the day. An avalanche of red
earth, supposed to be lava, burst from the mountain side, throwing
rocks high into the air, swallowing up houses, trees, men and animals,
and traveling three miles in as many minutes, burying a hamlet with
thirty-one inhabitants, and 500 head of cattle.
The people of the valleys fled to the mountains, which themselves were
splitting in all directions, and collecting on an elevated spot, with
the earth reeling under them, they spent a night of terror. Looking
toward the shore, they saw it sink, and at the same moment a wave,
whose height was estimated at from forty to sixty feet, hurled itself
upon the coast and receded five times, destroying whole villages and
engulfing forever forty-six people who had lingered too near the
shore.
Still the earthquakes continued, and still the volcanoes gave no sign.
People put their ears to the quivering ground and heard, or thought
they heard, the surgings of the imprisoned lava sea rending its way
among the ribs of the earth. Five days after the destructive
earthquake of April 2, the ground south of Hilo burst open with a
crash and a roar, which at once answered all questions concerning the
volcano. The molten river, after traveling underground for twenty
miles, emerged through a fissure two miles in length with a tremendous
force and volume. Four huge fountains boiled up with terrific fury,
throwing crimson lava and rocks weighing many tons from 500 to 1,000
feet.
Mr. Whitney, of Honolulu, who was near the spot, says: "From these
great fountains to the sea flowed a rapid stream of red lava, rolling,
rushing, and tumbling like a swollen river, bearing along in its
current large rocks that made the lava foam as it dashed down the
precipice and through the valley into the sea, surging and roaring
throughout its length like a cataract, with a power and fury
perfectly indescribable. It was nothing else than a river of fire from
200 to 800 feet wide and twenty deep, with a speed varying from ten to
twenty-five miles an hour. From the scene of these fire fountains,
whose united length was about one mile, the river in its rush to the
sea divided itself into four streams, between which it shut up men and
beasts. Where it entered the sea it extended the coast-line half a
mile, but this worthless accession to Hawaiian acreage was dearly
purchased by the loss, for ages at least, of 4,000 acres of valuable
agricultural land, and a much larger quantity of magnificent forest."
The entire southeast shore of Hawaii sank from four to six feet, which
involved the destruction of several hamlets and the beautiful fringe
of cocoanut trees. Though the region was very thinly peopled, 100
lives were sacrificed in this week of horrors; and from the reeling
mountains, the uplifted ocean, and the fiery inundation, the terrified
survivors fled into Hilo, each with a tale of woe and loss. The number
of shocks of earthquake counted was 2,000 in two weeks, an average of
140 a day; but on the other side of the island the number was
incalculable.
Since that time there have been several eruptions of these great
Hawaiian volcanoes, but none so destructive to life and property. Only
two years ago the crater of Mauna Loa was in eruption for some weeks,
and travelers journeyed to the vicinity from all over the world to see
the grand display of Nature's power in the fountains of lava and the
blazing rivers flowing down the mountain side. The spectacle could be
viewed perfectly at night from ships at sea, and from places of safety
on shore.
Across the North Pacific, from Kamschatka to Alaska, is a continuous
chain of craters in the Aleutian islands, forming almost a bridge over
the ocean, and from Alaska down the western coasts of the two Americas
is a string of the mightiest volcanoes in existence. Iceland is a
seething caldron under its eternal snows, and in a hundred places
where some great, jagged cone of a volcano rises, seemingly dead and
lifeless, only a fire-brand in the hand of nature may be needed to
awaken it to a fury like that of which its vast lava beds, pinnacles,
and craters are so eloquent.
The world's record for the extent of an eruption probably belongs to
the great volcano Skaptan Jokul, in Iceland. This eruption began on
June 11, 1783, having been preceded by violent earthquakes. A torrent
of lava welled up into the crater, overflowed it, and ran down the
sides of the cone into the channel of the Skapta river, completely
drying it up. The river had occupied a rocky gorge, from 400 to 600
feet deep, and averaging 200 feet wide. This gorge was filled, a deep
lake was filled, and the rock, still at white heat, flowed on into
subterranean caverns. Tremendous explosions followed, throwing
boulders to enormous heights. A week after the first eruption another
stream of lava followed the first, debouched over a precipice into the
channel of another river, and finally, at the end of two years, the
lava had spread over the plains below in great lakes twelve to fifteen
miles wide and a hundred feet deep. Twenty villages were destroyed by
fire, and out of 50,000 inhabitants nearly 9,000 perished, either from
fire or from noxious vapors.
The Skapta river branch of this lava stream was fifty miles long and
in places twelve to fifteen miles wide; the other stream was forty
miles long, seven miles broad, and the range of depth in each stream
was from 100 to 600 feet. Professor Bischoff has called this, in
quantity, the greatest eruption of the world, the lava, piled, having
been estimated as of greater volume than is Mont Blanc.
Regarding the volcanoes of the United States, Mount Shasta is one of
the most interesting of them. It has an altitude of 14,350 feet,
towering more than a mile above its nearest neighbor. Four thousand
feet of its peak are above timber line, covered with glaciers, while
the mountain's base is seventeen miles in diameter. Shasta is almost
continually showing slight evidences of its internal fires. Another of
the famous cones is that of Mount Hood, standing 11,225 feet,
snow-capped, and regarded as an extinct volcano.
As to the volcanic records of the great West, they may be read in the
chains of mountains that stretch from Alaska 10,000 miles to Tierra
del Fuego. In the giant geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone
Park are evidences of existing fires in the United States; while as to
the extent of seismic disturbances of the past, the famous lava beds
of Dakota, in which Captain Jack, the Modoc chief, held out against
government troops till starved into submission, are volcanic areas
full of mute testimony regarding nature's convulsions.
How soon, if ever, some of these volcanic areas of the United States
may burst forth into fresh activity, no one can predict. If the
slumbering giants should arouse themselves and shake off the rock
fetters which bind their strength, the results might be terrible to
contemplate. Those who dwell in the shadow of such peaks as are
believed to be extinct, become indifferent to such a possible threat
after many years of immunity, but such a disaster as that of St.
Pierre arouses thought and directs scrutiny once more upon the ancient
volcanic peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas.