3-047-117 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Volcanic eruption of Mauna Loa, Sandwich Islands, 1872. 'Our Engraving is an illustration of the grand fireworks of Nature. It shows the phenomenon of a pillar of fire rising from a crater...A vast cloud of fiery vapour rose above the lofty volcano; at times it formed a magnificent column at least 2000 ft. in height...It was, indeed, a glorious sight when the head expanded and spread out a palm-tree of fire...Eruptions have been so numerous and on so magnificent a scale in Hawaii, that the attention of geologists has been much attracted towards it...Among the many hundred peaks from which the fiery current has flowed none has been so celebrated...as that of Mauna Loa. The highest point is 13,950 ft. above the sea...Upon the side, though 10,000 ft. below, spreads out the largest burning crater in the world - Kilanea. In that crater 3,000,000 square yards are sunk nearly 1000 ft. below the rim of the crater. A number of boiling cauldrons are perpetually hissing with their bubbling lava, which has repeatedly overflowed, to the devastation of whole provinces around...At night the sight was glorious indeed...Fiery falls were seen along the course of the flaming river below, while the fiery foam swirled round the waves of this terrific cauldron'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.