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and its glare was seen on the opposite side of the island. It was also distinctly visible for more than one hundred miles at sea; and at the distance of forty miles, fine print could be read at midnight. The brilliancy of the light was like a blazing firmament, and the scene is said to have been one of unrivaled sublimity.

13. The whole course of the stream from Kilauea to the sea is about forty miles. Its mouth is about twenty-five miles from the Hilo station. The ground over which it flowed descends at the rate of one hundred feet to the mile. The crust is now cooled, and may be traversed with care, though scalding steam, pungent gases, and smoke are still emitted in many places.

14. In pursuing my way for nearly two days over this mighty smoldering mass, I was more and more impressed at every step with the wonderful scene. Hills had been melted down like wax; ravines and deep valleys had been filled; and majestic forests had disappeared like feathers in the flames. In some places the molten stream parted and flowed in separate channels for a considerable distance, and then reuniting, formed islands of various sizes, from one to fifty acres, with trees still standing, but seared and blighted by the intense heat.

15. On the outer edges of the lava, where the stream was more shallow and the heat less vehement, and where, of course, the liquid mass cooled soonest, the trees were mowed down like grass before the scythe, and left charred, crisped, smoldering, and only half consumed.

16. As the lava flowed around the trunks of large trees on the outskirts of the stream, the melted mass stiffened and consolidated before the trunk was consumed, and when this was effected, the top of the tree fell, and lay unconsumed on the crust, while the hole which marked the place of the trunk remains almost as smooth and perfect as the calibre of a

cannon.

17. These holes are innumerable, and I found them to

a Hilo (Helō;) a town in the island of Hawaii.

measure from ten to forty feet deep; but, as I remarked before, they are in the more shallow parts of the lava, the trees being entirely consumed where it was deeper. During the flow of this eruption, the great crater of Kilauea sunk about three hundred feet, and her fires became nearly extinct, one lake only, out of many, being left active in this mighty caldron.

18. This, with other facts which have been named, demonstrates that the eruption was the disgorgement of the fires of Kilauea. The open lake in the old crater is at present intensely active, and the fires are increasing, as is evident from the glare visible at our station and from the testimony of visitors.

19. During the early part of the eruption, slight and repeated shocks of earthquake were felt, for several successive days, near the scene of action. These shocks were not noticed at Hilo. Through the direction of a kind Providence, no lives were lost, and but little property was consumed during this amazing flood of fiery ruin. The stream passed over an uninhabited desert. A few little hamlets were consumed, and a few plantations were destroyed; but the inhabitants, forewarned, fled and escaped.

20. During the progress of the eruption, some of the people in Puna spent most of their time in prayer and religious meetings; some flew in consternation from the face of the all-devouring element; others wandered along its margin, marking with idle curiosity, its daily progress; while another class still coolly pursued their usual vocations, unawed by the burning fury as it rolled along within a mile of their doors.

21. They were apparently indifferent to the roar of consuming forests, the sight of devouring fire, the startling detonations, the hissing of escaping steam, the rending of the earth, the shivering and melting of gigantic rocks, the raging and dashing of the fiery waves, the bellowings, the murmurings, and the unearthly mutterings coming up from the burning deep.

a Disgorgement; the act of throwing out.

a

22. They went carelessly on amid the rain of ashes, sand, and fiery scintillations, gazing vacantly on the fearful and ever varying appearance of the atmosphere, murky, black, livid, blazing, the sudden rising of lofty pillars of flame, the upward curling of ten thousand columns of smoke, and their majestic roll in dense, dingy, lurid, or party-colored clouds.

23. During the progress of the descending stream, it would often fall into some fissure, and forcing itself into apertures and under massive rocks, and even hillocks and extended plats of ground, and lifting them from their ancient beds, bear them, with all their superincumbent mass of soil and trees, on its viscous and livid bosom, like a raft on the water. When the fused mass was sluggish, it had a gory appearance, like clotted blood, and when it was active, it resembled fresh and clotted blood mingled and thrown into violent agitation.

24. Sometimes the flowing lava would find a subterranean gallery, diverging at right angles from the main channel, and pressing into it would flow off unobserved, till meeting with some obstruction in its dark passage, when, by its expansive force, it would raise the crust of the earth into a dome-like hill of fifteen or twenty feet in height, and then, bursting this shell, pour itself out in a fiery torrent around.

25. A man who was standing at a considerable distance from the main stream, and intensely gazing on the absorbing scene before him, found himself suddenly raised to the height ›f ten or fifteen feet above the common level around him, and he had but just time to escape from his dangerous position when the earth opened where he had stood, and a stream of fire gushed out.

a Scintillation • emarl

LESSON LXXXIV. & 4

A SCENE AT SEA.

LEGGETT.

1. THE Active, a sloop of war, had been lying all day becalmed, in mid ocean, and was rolling and pitching about in a heavy ground swell, which was the only trace left of the gale she had lately encountered. The sky was of as tender and serene a blue as if it had never been deformed with clouds; and the atmosphere was bland and pleasant. To a true sailor there are few circumstances more annoying than a perfect calm.

2. On the afternoon in question, this feeling of restlessness at the continuance of the calm was not confined to the crew of the Active. Her commander had been nearly all day on deck, walking to and fro, on the starboard side, with quick, impatient strides, or now stepping into one gangway, and now into the other, and casting anxious and searching looks into all quarters of the heavens, as if it were of the utmost consequence that a breeze should spring up and enable him to pursue his way.

3. But notwithstanding his impatience, and the urgency of his mission, whatever it was, the Active continued to roll heavily about at the sport of the big round billows, which swelled up and spread and tumbled over so lazily, that their glassy surfaces were not broken by a ripple. The sun went down clear, but red and fiery; and the sky, though its blue faded to a duskier tint, still remained unflecked by a single cloud. "We shall have a dull and lazy night of it, Vangs," said the master's mate.

4. The person he addressed stood on the heel of the bowsprit, with his arms folded on his breast, and his gaze fixed intently on the western horizon, from which the daylight had so completely faded, that it required a practised and keen eye

■ Starboard side; the right hand side of the ship. Bow'sprit; a boom or mast which projects over the stem of a ship.

He did not turn

to discern where the sky and water met. his head, nor withdraw his eyes from the spot they rested on, as he said, in a low tone, "We shall have work enough before morning."

5. "Turn your eye in that direction, Mr. Garnet. Do you not see a faint belt of light, no broader than my finger, that streaks the sky where the sun went down? It is not daylight, for I watched that all fade away, and the last glimmer of it was gone before that dim, brassy streak began to show itself. And carry your eye in a straight line above it; do you not mark how thick and lead-like the air looks?

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6. "There is that there," said the old man, "which will try what stuff these sticks are made of before the morning breaks." Is there, then, really any prospect of wind?" asked the midshipman. "Let it come butt-end foremost, if it chooses, and the sooner the better," said young Burton. laughing.

7. The old quarter-master turned a grave and thoughtful look on the round face of the lively boy, and seemed meditating an answer that might repress what probably struck him as untimely mirth; but even while he was in the act of speaking, the tempest he had predicted burst in sudden fury upon the vessel.

8. The first indication those below had of its approach was the wild rushing sound of the gust, which broke upon their ears like the roar of a volcano. The heaving and rolling of the ship ceased all at once, as if the waves had been subdued and chained down by the force of a mighty pressure.

9. The vessel stood motionless an instant, as if instinct with life, and cowering in conscious fear of the approaching strife; the tempest then burst upon her, and the stately mass reeled and fell over before it, like a tower struck down by a thunderbolt. The surge was so violent that the ship was thrown almost on her beam-ends, and every thing on board, not secured in the strongest manner, was pitched with great force to the leeward."

a Lee'ward; on the opposite side to that from which the wind blows.

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