Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-05-15
From tie HaWGiian Spectator Of Oct. 6, 1885,
CRATER OF KIRAUEA. HAWAII.
SANDWICH ISLANDS.

The following graphic sketch has
kindly been furnished by Count Street.
eckI, Polish nobleman, and sclentic
traveller, who has for some time resided
IN the United States and in Mexico, aud
is now visiting various portions of the
Pacific in the Fl. B. M. ship Fly:
My Dean Sir:-Your kind request to
supply the valuable publication of the
Spectator, with an account of nv visit to
the volcano of Kirauea on Hawaii, both
pains and flatters me; for regret much
that my limited stay here, the daily cur
rent and accumulating objects of new
and interesting inquiries, render any cir
cumstantial desert tion of it really i'm
possible to me. A few facts, and fewer
observations, which a hastv and rough
sketch brings forth, is all | am able to
supply you with. cannot even attempt
to give you the slightest idea of the i'm
pressions which the awful sublimity of
the volcano produced upon my ina gina
ton; that part of our being does not yield
as easy as mernory-it does not repro
duce sensations; the rapture, the enthu-
siasm once gone by, is lost forever.
What remember, and long shall rec
ollect, as showing the mighty influence
of mighty objects upon me, are the diff
culties I had to struggle with, before nv
eye could be torn away from the idle,
vacant but extatic gazing with which |
regarded the great whole. down to the
analytical part of the wondrous and un-
paralleIed scene before me; | say unpar.
alleled, because. having visited most Of
the European and American volcanoes,
find the greatest of them inferior to
Kirauea Crater, in intensity, grandeur
and extent or area.
The abrupt and PERCEPTIONS cliff which
: forms the N N E. wall of the crater
found after my repeated observations, tc
be elevated 4,l04 feet above the level O
the sea-overhangs an area of 3,l5O,OOC
square yards of half-cooled scoria, sunl
to the depth of 800 yards. and containing
more than 100000 square yards of con
vulsed torrents of earth in igneous fusion
$ and gaseous fluids constantly eferyescing
: boiling, spouting, rolling in all directions
4 like waves of a disturbed sea violently
/ beating against the edge of the caldron
= like an infuriated surf, and like sur
l. Spreading all around its spray in the form
e of capillary glass, which fills the air, an
adheres in faky and pendulous form t
IS the distorted and broken masses of tn
:, lava all around; five caldrons, each c
l. about $500 square yards, almost at>th
!. level of the great area, AMI conta.nin
s. only the twelfth part of the red liquid
n the sixth caldron is encrcled by wall {
l. accumulated scoria of fifty yards higt
forming the S. S. w. point-the ale ma
l. mGw of the natives, to which the bones
Y, the former high chiefs were consigned
the sacrifices to the goddess Pele ofere
Of the abyss of abysses, the caldron
y misunderstanding the most frightf
lie area of about 800, 900 square yards, bu
bling red hot lava-changing incessant
We its level-sometimes rolling the long cul
x ed waves with broken masses of coolt
IS, crust to one side of the horrible Labrador
Ia sometimes, as if they had made mi
I'm take. turning them back with spoutir
nd fury, and subterraneous, terrific nois
n OF sound more Internal than earthl
nd around me blocks of lava, scoria, sla
of every description and combination, he
If elevated. by the endless number Of supe
elf imposed layers, in perpendicular walls
,a- 1000 feet high-there torn asunder, d
he persed, cracked or re moulded-eve1
bv where terror, convulsion-mighty engi
s9.- of nature-and nothingness of mani
n No where does the solution of the or
n problem of volcanic fires, by Sir HUM
he rey Davy, receive more payable ILL
ar. tration than here; the access of the wa
his to these ignited masses of minerals
lid alkaline and earthly bases, by which t
= great philosopher explained the cow
- " sions of volcanic fires, is displayed h
'sn in most portentous, most awful effects
ON 1t is only TO those millions Of vents
the arou.. the crater, through which
liar supera 'ndance of steam escapes-to
ans, millions of assures through which
lass sui phurous and sui phuric acids libel
themselves from beneath, that the pre-
liver vation of Hawaii from utter destruct
ara. by the expansive force of steam and ga
the can be ascribed.
liar, The nature of the volcano. with
ians uncommonly intense heat, and so m
!, by wide and easy openings, is to eject n
hese ing without alteration, and to subj
nave every variety of substance which the
ngs, contains of the volcanic fires embI
aher Thus, here is the rare volcanic glas
capillary forms, and many perfect vi
the cations; the muriate Of ammonia In
florescence, often conchoida, Otter
Dox- elongated fexahedrals-an in one 81
instance, even in that rare form of a c
; chrystaI; thus, the sui phuret of ars
Iaroe both as realgar and orpiment; the
prna. phur itself in most beautiful incrustat
-. chrusialized In cubic or truncated Oc