The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-05-30

! \ correspondent of the indianapolis
| J0urHal, who writes from llilo, Hawaii,
| gives long and graphic account of a
recent visit of a party Of four, of whom
| she was one, to the crater Of Kilauea, the
| largest known active volcano in the world.
| She describes it as a vast black pit, ten or
twelve miles in circumference, and about
thousand feet deep. The greater part is a
stony lake of old lava, with innumerable
crcviccs from which issued clouds of steam,
and near the centre was huge mound,
probably half a mile around the top and
two hundred feet high, which sent up
heavy columns of smoke, the caldron of
the South Lake. We quote the writer's
account of the descent into the crater
She says:
The guide began picking his way care
fully, for we were near the edge of the cal
drun, and walking on the surface Of raging
furnaces. Once we saw a large circular
mound with an opening in the top, and
going as near as we dared, beheld the VERT
able fires Of T"phet down below, while the
heat and smoke almost suilocated us. At
last the place was reached. We stood on
she high bank of an irregular lava of
| liquid fire which was seethng and rolling
TO and fro, glowing with exceeding great
heat and sending out vast columns of
smoke. The bottom of the cliff was ringed
with fire, and seemed ready to crumble into
the lake beneath; the shore line of lava
looked like blood compared with the black
cliff above it. A cascade of fire was play
ing in the centre of the lake, and scatter.
ing fiery spary all around it. Then for a
few moments it subsidized, and the lake
cooled over on top, thin crust of gray and
black; but it soon heaved up slowly in the
centre and Spouted up a fiery gcyser thirty
or forty feet high, that played like colos
sal fountain several minutes, flinging out
showers and clots of lava, and dashing up
red pillows against the cliffs with sound
resembling surf on n rocky shore, only that
it had something indescribably hellish and
diabolical in it that filed me with an awful
sound, now faint, now loud, was to me by
far the most impressive part. | think |
should go mad if had to listen to it long,
and realize that it was caused by the reck
less, surgng sea of fire that seemed tie very
lake of perdition. \ large part of the
cliIi has fallen in lately, almost dividing the
lake into two parts, and the southern part,
the furthest from us, seemed most active,
for whenever the smoke cleared away we
could see great fountains and showers of
lava, the spray being constantly flung
against the shore, and the pillows unceas-
ingiy tossed against the cliff dashiDg and
writhing in eternal torment. Sometimes
the wind shifted and sent the smoke right
in Cur faces; it is not unlike the fumes Of
lighted matches, and set us to coughing
and strangling in moment. We were at
times almost suf1ocated, but dared not 90
further on, for the edge of the cliff was
scanned and Scared and scorched with fires,
so that it hung together in crisp layers,
| with wide gaps between, whence issued
volumes Of smoke and the peculiar glm-
mer and glow of great heat The place on
which we stood was so hot that we had to
keep moving about. lest our feet should
burn, and | found by experiment that
could not hold my hand over crevice more
than a few seconds, owing to the intense
heat. The scene below was constantly
CHI lnging: sometimes. when the lake had
crustcd over, a bllow of red-hot lava would
roll from under the cliff and break in the
crust near the shore, roll again, and break
in more, &c, &c, all across the lake, till
it was once more a mass of liquid fire:
then boiled and bubbled in restless cas-
cades, or spouted up jets with great force
forty feet in the air. Remember, there
was no flame or blaze about all this, it was
| liquid matter, heated to red or white heat,
resembling exactly the molten iron seen in
foundrics. This lake is constantly chang
ing. At the time of our visit it was three
or four acres in extent, and the surface was
1870 feet below the top of the cliff. Huge
masses Of rock are constantly tnmbling in,
and there is always danger to visitors who
stand close to the edge. Only few days
before party had a very narrow escape:
! they were standing on ledge of rock when
| they heard n smashing sound beneath them,
and had just time to step backward when
tie entire shelf was precipitated into the
boiling lava below. We stayed about three
hours " itching the lake glow and brighten
nd rl
surface zigZaggcd with vivid lines of fire
or vaiiegated with rings of rose color,
sometimes a cluster of flame hued foun-
ia MS, spouting up here and there through
the crust, which gradually broke up and
melted into the seething mass. Then,