"
His anticipation of the burial of Hilo under the mighty flow was happily
not realized. It came to an abrupt halt while seven miles distant, the
checked stream standing in a threatening and rugged ridge, with rigid,
beetling front.
THE ERUPTIONS OF 1859 AND 1865
In January, 1859, Mauna Loa was again at its fire-play, throwing up
lava fountains from 800 to 1,000 feet in height. From this great fiery
fountain the lava flowed down in numerous streams, spreading over a
width of five or six miles. One stream, probably formed by the junction
of several smaller, attained a height of from twenty to twenty-five
feet, and a breadth of about an eighth of a mile. Great stones were
thrown up along with the jet of lava, and the volume of seeming smoke,
composed probably of fine volcanic dust, is said to have risen to the
height of 10,000 feet.
An eruption of still greater violence took place in 1865, characterized
by similar phenomena, particularly the throwing up of jets of lava. This
fiery fountain continued to play without intermission for twenty days
and nights, varying only as respects the height to which the jet arose,
which is said to have ranged between 100 and 1,000 feet, the mean
diameter of the jet being about 100 feet. This eruption was accompanied
by explosions so loud as to have been heard at a distance of forty
miles.
A cone of about 300 feet in height, and about a mile in circumference,
was accumulated round the orifice whence the jet ascended.
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