Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii, Its Volcanoes, and the History of Its Missions, Volume 1

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Page 212 - ... feet deep. The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its " fiery surge
Page 235 - ... about as if torn by a mighty rushing wind. It was impossible to stand, we had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet to keep from rolling over.
Page 213 - ... pools of water, for they must have been produced by other fire than that which caused the ebullition in the lava at the bottom of the great crater ; and also by noticing a number of small craters, in vigorous action, situated high up the sides of the great gulf, and apparently quite detached from it. The streams of lava which they emitted rolled down into the lake, and mingled with the melted mass there, which, though thrown up by different apertures, had perhaps been originally fused in one...
Page 228 - I seemed to be standing in the presence and before the throne of the eternal God ; and while all other voices were hushed, His alone spake. I was ten thousand feet above the sea, in a vast solitude untrodden by the foot of man or beast ; amidst a silence unbroken by any living voice, and surrounded by scenes of terrific desolation. Here I stood almost blinded by the insufferable brightness ; almost deafened with the startling clangor ; almost petrified with the awful scene. The heat was so intense...
Page 213 - The sides of the gulf before us, although composed of different strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular for about 400 feet, and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black lava of irregular breadth, but extending completely round. Beneath this ledge the sides sloped gradually towards the burning lake, which was, as nearly as we could judge, 300 or 400 feet lower.
Page 228 - ... of this great furnace of Jehovah. During the night the scene surpassed all power of description. Vast columns of lava, at a white heat, shot up continuously in the ever varying forms of pillars, pyramids, cones, towers, turrets, spires, minarets, etc.
Page 229 - ... containing matter enough to sink the proudest ship. A large fissure opening through the lower rim of the crater gave vent to the molten flood which constantly poured out of the orifice, and rolled down the mountain in a deep, broad river, at the rate, probably, of ten miles an hour. This fiery stream we could trace all the way down the mountain, until it was hidden from the eye by its windings in the forest, a distance of some thirty miles. The stream shone with great brilliancy in the night,...
Page 212 - Twentytwo constantly emitted columns of grey smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame ; and several of these at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented sides into the boiling mass below.
Page 212 - Fifty-one craters of varied form and size rose like so many conical islands from the surface of the burning lake. Twenty-two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame...

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