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