The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1871-11-03
An ISlnlld Oh Fire.


Hawaii are two. First, the crater of
Ki-lau.e.a, situated upon tho eastern
slope of this mountain, and about mid
way between its summit and the sea.
1t is q vast pit, nine miles in circum-
ference, sunk in the flank Of the noun
tain, and varying in depth, in different
years, from thousand to fifteen hun
dred feet, according as the sea of molten
lava beneath its floor will be slowly
raised by the eaccumulating lavas below |;
and when their lateral pressure becomes
at last too great to be resisted, the mol
ten torrent, rcnding its way with ire
sistabe force through rock and earth +,
and shaking the whole island with the
throes Of its progress, finally breaks to
the surface, five, ten, or twenty miles
from the crater. The river of fire leaps
from the ground, a mighty fountain
that sometimes plays thousand feeG
high, with a jet that is several hundred
feet in diameter, and pours down the
flank of the mountain toward the sea .
This it often reaches, enlarging the area
Of the island by pushing out new capes
and promontOrieS Of lava into the water.
The lava thus elected may remain, in
many places, warm and smoking for
months after the eruption has ceased !;
yet have seen spots where the natives,
pulverizing the cooled lava, and mixing
with it a few dead leaves before plant
ing in it, had obtained good crops OF
sweet potatoes from what a year before
was torrent of liquid fire. Nature
thus renews the soil, furnishing a bran
n ew article at each eruption, white-hot
from her chemical laboratories in the
center of the earth.
With each eruption "the bottom is
knocked out,' so to speak, of the great
crater of Ki-lau.e-a. The flood of mol
ten lava upon which it rests is rapidly
drained away, and the vast floor of in
durated lavas, an area of six square
miles at the bottom of the pit, goes
crashing still farther downward, three,
| four, five hundred feet to tho central
fires rs when the water,-to compare
great things with small, is let off from
frozen mill.pond, and the ice settles
down upon the bottom. The mountain
wall is probably not entirely solid and
compact, AS the lavas are extremely
fluid, and in running Off honeycomb 1T
structure, leaving numerous caVern'
behind them through which subsequent
eruptions force their way. Yet thu
pressure required for the lava to reno
the mountain wall is estimated at no
less than five hundred pounds to th'
square inch, or Il million pounds for
stream two feet deep and seven Zee
broad. When the breadth Of the lavi
stream is measured by miles instead o
feet, force enough is oXerted TO shak'
the island to its foundations.
The grand eruptions Of Kilau ca oc
cur, with some approach to regularity
at intervals of about eight years. Blu
the volcano does not, like Vesuvius
Etna, or Stromboli, coniine its activit.
to special occasions. The fire rage
continually in the southern end OF tn
great crater, where lake of mclte
lava tosScs its red surges and poul
forth its sulphurous vapors withol
ceasing. This lake, the "llele Ma,
mau," or " House of Everlasting Fire
of the heather mythology, may /
safely approached by the traveller
almost any time.
The appearance of this lake varlt
greatly, however, at different time
Sometimes the lava is SO far sunke
below its banks that the traveller cann'
reach it, and comes away quite disal
pointed with what he has seen. Agail
, in times of great activity, the fiery ST
may overflow upon the bottom of Il
, crater, or force itself up through hume
, GUS cracks and chasms in the floor
. indulated lavas. / was once in Il
/ bottom of Kl-lau,ea when the Law
boiling up from below, overaowed !