LESSON LXXXI.

TO THE CONDOR.

[The learner may scan the first stanza of the following piece, and note the words in which the metrical and customary accents conflict. See note under Metrical Accent, p. 71.]

1. WONDROUS, majestic bird! whose mighty wing
Dwells not with puny warblers of the spring,
Nor on earth's silent breast;

Powerful to soar in strength and pride on high,
And sweep the azure bosom of the sky,

Chooses its place of rest.

2. Proud nursling of the tempest, where repose
Thy pinions at the daylight's fading close?
In what far clime of night

Dost thou in silence, breathless and alone,
While round thee swell, of life no kindred tone,
Suspend thy tireless flight?

3. The mountain's frozen peak is lone and bare,
No foot of man hath ever rested there;
Yet 't is thy sport to soar

Far o'er its frowning summit; and the plain
Would seek to win thy downward wing in vain,
Or the green sea-beat shore.

4. The limits of thy course no daring eye

Has marked; thy glorious path of light on high
Is trackless and unknown;

The gorgeous sun thy quenchless gaze may share;
Sole tenant of his boundless realm of air,

Thou art, with him, alone.

6. Imperial wanderer! the storms that shake

Earth's towers, and bid her rooted mountains quake,
Are never felt by thee!

Beyond the bolt, beyond the lightning's gleam,

Basking forever in the unclouded beam,-
Thy home, immensity!

6. And thus the soul, with upward flight like thine,
May track the realms where heaven's own glories shine,
And scorn the tempest's power;

Yet meaner cares oppress its drooping wings,
Still to earth's joys the sky-born wanderer clings,
Those pageants of an hour!

1.

2.

Ir came with spring's soft sun and showers,
Mid bursting buds and blushing flowers;
It flourished on the same light stem,

It drank the same clear dews with them.
The crimson tints of summer morn,
That gilded one, did each adorn;

The breeze, that whispered light and brief
To bud or blossom, kissed the leaf;
When o'er the leaf the tempest flew,
The bud and blossom trembled too.

But its companions passed away,
And left the leaf to lone decay.
The gentle gales of spring went by,
The fruits and flowers of summer die.
The autumn winds swept o'er the hill,
And winter's breath came cold and chill.

The leaf now yielded to the blast,

And on the rushing stream was cast;

Far, far it glided to the sea,

And whirled and eddied wearily,

Till suddenly it sank to rest,

And slumbered on the ocean's breast.

3.

Thus life begins-its morning hours
Bright as the birthday of the flowers;
Thus passes like the leaves away,
As withered and as lost as they.
Beneath the parent roof we meet
In joyous groups, and gaily greet
The golden beams of love and light,
That kindle to the youthful sight.
But soon we part, and one by one,
Like leaves and flowers, the group is gone.

LESSON LXXXIII.

ERUPTION OF THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA.a

COAN.

1. On the 30th of May the people of Puna observed the appearance of smoke and fire in the interior, a mountainous and desolate region of that district. Thinking that the fire might be the burning of some jungle, they took little notice of it until the next day, Sabbath, when the meetings in the different villages were thrown into confusion by sudden and grand exhibitions of fire, on a scale so large and fearful as to leave them no room to doubt the cause of the phenomenon.

2. The fire augmented during the day and night, but it did not seem to flow off rapidly in any direction. All were in consternation, as it was expected that the molten flood would pour itself down from its height of four thousand feet, to the coast, and no one knew to what point it would flow, or what devastation would attend its fiery course. On Monday, June 1st, the stream began to flow off in a northeasterly direction,. and on the following Wednesday, at evening, the burning river reached the sea, having averaged about half a mile an hour in its progress.

3. The rapidity of the flow was very unequal, being modi.

a Kilauea (kê-low-e'ä ;) a place on the island of Hawaii (hä-wi'ee,) one of the Sand wich group. Puna (poo-na.) Jungle; a thick cluster of small trees or shrubs.

fied by the inequalities of the surface over which the stream passed. Sometimes it is supposed to have moved five miles an hour, and, at other times, owing to obstructions, making no apparent progress, except in filling up deep valleys, and in swelling over or breaking away hills and precipices.

4. But I will turn to the source of the eruption. This is in a forest, and in the bottom of an ancient wooded crater, about four hundred feet deep, and probably eight miles east from Kilauea. The region being uninhabited and covered with a thicket, it was some time before the place was discovered, and up to this time, though several foreigners have attempted it, no one except myself has reached the spot.

5. From Kilauea to this place the lava flowed in a subterranean gallery, probably at the depth of a thousand feet; but its course can be distinctly traced all the way, by the rending of the crust of the earth into innumerable fissures, and by the emission of smoke, steam, and gases. The eruption in this old crater was small, and from this place the stream disappeared again for the distance of a mile or two, when the lava again gushed up and spread over an area of about fifty acres.

6. Again it passed under ground for two or three miles, when it reappeared in another old wooded crater, consuming the forest, and partly filling up the basin. Once more it disappeared, and flowed in a subterranean channel, cracking and breaking the earth, opening fissures from six inches to ten or twelve feet in width, and sometimes splitting the trunk of a tree so exactly that its legs stand astride of the fissure.

7. At some places it is impossible to trace the subterranean stream, on account of the impenetrable thicket under which it passed. After flowing under ground several miles, perhaps six or eight, it again broke out like an overwhelming flood, and sweeping forest, hamlet, plantation, and every thing before 't, rolled down with resistless energy to the sea, where, leaping a precipice of forty or fifty feet, it poured itself in one vast cataract of fire into the deep below, with loud "detona.

a Detonations; explosions.

tions, fearful hissings, and a thousand unearthly and indescribable sounds.

8. Imagine to yourself a river of fused minerals of the breadth and depth of Niagara, and of a deep gory red, falling in one emblazoned sheet, one raging torrent, into the ocean: The scene, as described by eye-witnesses, was terribly sublime. Two mighty agencies in collision! Two antagonist and gigantic forces in contact, and producing effects on a scale inconceivably grand!

9. The atmosphere in all directions was filled with ashes, spray and gases; while the burning lava, as it fell into the water, was shivered into millions of minute particles, and being thrown back into the air, fell in showers of sand on all the surrounding country. The coast was extended into the sea for a quarter of a mile, and a pretty sand beach and a new cape were formed. Three hills of scoriaa and sand were also formed in the sea, the lowest about two hundred, and the highest about three hundred feet.

10. For three weeks this terrific river disgorged itself into the sea with little abatement. Multitudes of fishes were killed, and the waters of the ocean were heated for twenty miles along the coast. The breadth of the stream, where it fell into the sea, is about half a mile, but inland it varies from one to four or five miles in width, conforming itself, like a river, to the face of the country over which it flowed.

11. Indeed, if you can imagine the Mississippi, converted into liquid fire, of the consistency of fused iron, and moving onward, sometimes rapidly, sometimes sluggishly; now widening into a sea, and anon rushing through a narrow defile, winding its way through mighty forests and ancient solitudes, you will get some idea of the spectacle now exhibited. The depth of the stream will probably vary from ten to two hundred feet, according to the inequalities of the surface over which it passed.

12. During the flow, night was converted into day. The Light rose and spread like the morning upon the mountains

Sco'ria; volcanic cinders.