One stream hurried to the sea in four
hours, but the others took two days to travel ten miles. The
aggregate width was a mile and a half. 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 4000 acres of valuable pasture land, and a much larger
quantity of magnificent forest. The whole south-east shore of
Hawaii sank from four to six feet, which involved the destruction of
several hamlets and the beautiful fringe of cocoa-nut trees. Though
the region was very thinly peopled, 200 houses and 100 lives were
sacrificed in this week of horrors, and from the reeling mountains,
the uplifted ocean, and the fiery inundation, the terrified
survivors fled into Hilo, each with a tale of woe and loss. The
number of shocks of earthquake counted was 2000 in two weeks, an
average of 140 a day; but on the other side of the island the number
was incalculable.
I.L.B.
LETTER XIII.
HILO. HAWAII. February.
The quiet, dreamy, afternoon existence of Hilo is disturbed. Two
days ago an official intimation was received that the American
Government had placed the U.
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