--- title: Volcanic Activity — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · full text with trees description: Volcanic Activity, «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In a little note-book in Hilo is a record which from time to time has been studied and copied frequently by visiting scientists. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / Volcanic Activity # Volcanic Activity Volcanic Activity of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole text, 145 sentences and 2583 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/page/2/) In a little note-book in Hilo is a record which from time to time has been studied and copied frequently by visiting scientists.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") The missionary mother who put down the facts therein recorded never dreamed of being scientific.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") She simply kept a record.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") In 1832 Mrs. Sarah J. Lyman came to Hilo, where her husband founded the Hilo Boys’ Boarding School, a school, by the way, after which the great Hampton Institute of Virginia was patterned.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") On October 3, 1833, she was tossed around in her home in a way somewhat alarming.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") She opened her little note-book and wrote, “Two earthquakes, one of them heavy.”[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") She had a little curiosity to see how frequently these earthquakes disturbed her home.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus the record went on from month to month and year to year: “Earthquake, motion up and down,” “Heavy shake, stone walls down, cream shaken off the milk,” “4 A.M., all the family aroused,” “Jar and a noise like distant cannon,” “Tremendous shock, brace ourselves to stand up,” “Kai-mimiki” (sea shaken by an earthquake), “All motions combined, earth like the sea.”[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") At one time the record ran: “Frequent jars, severe, so many I have ceased to count.”[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Interspersed through this concise and interesting story of earthquakes told in a few word pictures are many references to other volcanic phenomena.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") “Activity great in Mokuaweoweo.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") Mountain clear for several days, the smoke is marked, light brilliant at night, snow extensive on both mountains.”[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") The year 1868 has been marked as the volcano year of Hawaiian history.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Mr. F.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") S. Lyman, now living in Hilo, wrote a journal letter, which was quoted in full.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") He writes as follows about the earthquake:[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") “March 27–31, 1868.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") A sudden eruption from Mauna Loa, no forewarning, a spray of red lava thrown high in the air, followed by a great stream of smoke rising up thousands of feet.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") In Kau we had quite a sprinkling of Pele’s hair, peculiar earthquakes—first hard shakes, then a swaying motion, as if the whole island were swaying back and forth and we with it.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") March 31—From about 10 P.M. to 2 A.M. the shaking was incessant.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Thursday, April 2nd.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") We experienced the most fearful of earthquakes.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") The earth swayed north, south, east, west, round and round, up and down, and in every imaginable direction, everything crashing around us, trees thrashing as if torn by a mighty wind, impossible to stand.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") We had to sit on the ground, bracing with hands and feet, to keep from rolling over.”[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Mr. H. M. Whitney, editor of the Advertiser, says that “the number of shocks which occurred at Waiohinu from March 29 to April 10 was estimated at upwards of two thousand.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") The heaviest shock, that of April 2d, destroyed every church and nearly every dwelling in the whole district.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") This earthquake was felt very sensibly in Honolulu.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") Following the earthquake came a great tidal wave at Punaluu.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") It rolled in over the tops of coconut trees, probably sixty feet high at least, driving all floating rubbish inland about a quarter of a mile—taking with it, when it returned to the sea, houses, men, and women and everything movable.”[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Mr. Lyman wrote: “We could see the shore.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") All along the seashore from directly below us to Punaluu about three or four miles the sea was boiling and foaming furiously, all red.”[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Two remarkable eruptions accompanied this earthquake.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") The lava, starting from the slope of Mauna Loa, sank into some great channel but “burst forth with a heavy roar several miles farther down.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") The lava stream became a river of fire, flowing rapidly toward and around some farmhouses.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") The inmates had barely time to escape.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") The path by which they fled was covered with lava within ten minutes after they passed over it.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Animals and even human beings perished.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") The number of deaths were between eighty and one hundred.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") This eruption flowed ten miles in two hours, and continued five days, destroying many thousands of acres of good lands.”[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The second remarkable eruption was nearer the crater Kilauea and has been known as “The Great Mud Flow of 1868.”[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") It is in the region covered by the Pahala plantation.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Mr. Lyman writes: “In the midst of the great earthquake we saw burst out from the top of the pali about a mile and a half north of us, what we supposed to be an immense river of molten lava (which afterward proved to be red earth), which rushed down in headlong course and across the plain below, apparently bursting from the ground and swallowing up everything in its way—trees, houses, cattle, horses, men, in an instant as it were.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") It went three miles in not more than three minutes’ time and then stopped.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") After the hard shaking had ceased we went right over to a hill with the children and our natives expecting every moment to be swallowed up by the lava from beneath, for it sounded as if it were surging and washing under our feet all the time.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") Outside of Punaluu we saw a long black point of lava slowly pushing out to sea.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") An island about four hundred feet high rose out of the sea at the south point.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") The lava river has extended the shore to this island one mile at least.”[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") Mrs. Lyman wrote: “Jan. 30, 1875.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") Light exceedingly brilliant.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Perpendicular column of smoke over 1,000 feet high on the summit crater spreading out at top like an expanding flower.”[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") This august glow was described by members of the “Challenger” expedition as “a globular cloud perpetually reformed by condensation, having a brilliant orange glow at night as if a fire were raging in the distance.”[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") This display from the summit of Mauna Loa continued about eighteen months.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Isabella Bird Bishop, author of “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands,” visited this active crater in 1874, and wrote about the crater itself.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") “Nearly opposite us a fountain of pure yellow fire, unlike the gory gleam of Kilauea, was throwing up its glorious incandescence.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") The sunset gold was not purer than the living fire.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") The roar of this surging lava sea was a glorious sound, the roar of an ocean at dispeace mingled with the hollow murmur of surf echoing in sea caves, booming on, rising and falling like the thunder music of windward Hawaii.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") The area below us was over two miles long and a mile and a half wide with precipitous sides and a broad second shelf about 300 feet below the one we occupied with a fire fountain three-quarters of a mile away.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") On the way up the mountain there was a fearful internal throbbing and rumbling, rocks and masses of soil were dislodged, the earth reeled, then rocked again with such violence that I felt as if the horse and myself had gone over.”[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") During these months of 1874–1875 there were magnificent exhibitions of clouds reflecting volcanic fires caused by the upburst of lava fountains.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") The summit crater of Mauna Loa is about 13,000 feet altitude.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") Snow has frequently covered the top of the mountain, lying in deep banks around the edge of the crater.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") The cold has acted quickly upon the lake of fire, congealing a large part of the surface into a hard floor of lava.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Gases, steam, and smoke lift this floor and break through it with great violence, escaping from the melted lava in pillars of cloud against which the fires beneath mirror themselves in glorious displays of color.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") These outbursts were frequently called eruptions.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") The modern name is more correct.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") They are “glows,” reflecting wonderful fires beneath.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") Mrs. Lyman mentions another eruption from the summit of Mauna Loa.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") “1877.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") Feb. 14.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") Eruption seen on the mountain.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") Ten days extinct then broke out lower down the mountain and reached the sea in a few days, near Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay.”[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/page/2/) - ← previous: [Hawaiian Volcanoes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/26/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/27/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/)