The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-05-22
NOTES OF A TRIP To PUMA AND THE
VOLCANO.

-~N '+-tf 4 WI ~ again Oh the ROAD TO hi
lauea. Hilo has not greatly altered, though
somewhat ~grown-wo0den buildings are much
more plentiful than they were formerly, Lu, the
town presents the anne beautiful and luxuriantly
tropical appearance as twenty years ago, and IS
almost as quiet.
Starting from HilO at 9 O'Clock in the morning,
and being well-mounted. our party reached the
Volcano House in seven hours, including a stop
page for lunch. At the 9 Hotel - as it is aubiti-
ously termed by the people hereabouts. we found
everything neat, in good order and scrupulously
clean fine grassy lawns and pleasant walks in
the vicinity. with Kilauea smoking and steaming
in sight at every turn. The great South Lake
was brim full and running over on the day Of our
visit, on the left side as you face the crater from
the house. Once IN fifteen or twenty minutes
there vas a pulsation, when the lava ran out of
a narrow opening down around the base Of the
miniature mountain, at a sharp angle, and ran
70 the west. From the opening in the rim of the
basin 1t ran ct a great rate of speed for a half d
mile and disappeared. The bottom of the crater
was divided by a wall-like ridge, running from
the South Lake towards the side where the house
is situated, leaving the West side Of the bottom
from one to two hundred feet lower than the East
$1,000 80 N-N-@- ~ - ADghIN 10
it might overflow at any time. The South Lake
was now from three TO four hundred feet higher
than it VAS in 1865 when 1 last visited Kilauea.
and the bottom was much above it's then level.
At that time there were four open lakes of lava.
But the great earthquake Tor successive earth
quakes) Of 1858 altered the whole ASPECT of the
crater, with the exception of the South Lake,
which is the main artery. and that was in much
the same condition as formerly, but more elevated.
1t now seemed to be forming a mountain out of
Its own materials and if no discharge from XII
lauea takes place within the next ten years, the
mouth Of the mighty cauldron will be elevated
far above the banks of the crater. But the ex-
perience of the past shows that the Lake has often
filled partially, and then came a convulsion, and
down 1t went again to its former level. The flow
Of 1910, which ran Town into Puma, drained XII
lauea, just rs did that of 1868 into Kau, when
the lava in the crater sank some FIVE hundred feet.
and none to be seen in the South Lake.
The terminal crater of Mauna Loa, over 1900
feet above the sea level, has been in uninterrupted
activity, more or less pronounced, for the past
two years,-longer than any one now living re-
members in the past. or of which there are any
traditions. Judging from previous experience,
there will be another outbreak soon, but it is
mere matter of conjecture as to the precise locality
in which Madam Pele will next exert her strength.
Since 1910, the lava flows have been equally dis
tributed around Mauna Loa. Thus, in 1910 into
Puma, to the sea; in 1855, towards Hilo, threat
ening at one time to destroy the town; in 1859,
into the sea at Wainanalii in North Kona in 1868,
into Kau. The last was attended with earth
quake shocks of unprecedented violence, a mud
flow, and a tidal wave. The Puma coast since
then for many miles, appears to have sunk several
feet, as stumps of cocoanut trees are seen at some
distance in the sea. The wave extended from the
South Point of the Island to some ten OF fifteen
miles north of Keauhou.
After spending one night Il at the Volcano House,
(very Comfortably we started FOX Puma, through
what seemed an interminable forest of Koa and
Ohia trees, but with n good road. Late in the
afternoon-(we travelled slowly put up for the
night at a native house, where we were treated
most Hospitality. The family, who are pulu
gatherers, live here some ten or twelve miles from
any other habitation. There was the father,
mother, and six fine healthy looking children, the
latter like a pair of stairs from the infant up
wards. Next morning, reaching the seacoast and
a village, we saw traces of the tidal wave of 1868;
stumps of cocoanut trees sticking out of the
water some distance from the shore.
In the afternoon we arrived at the ranch of Cap
tain Eldarts, and were most Hospitality received.
Here we spent the next day, which was Sunday.
The Captains ranch is on the East point of the
island, and is one of the most beautiful of the
many to be found in the group. 1t looks like a
land of plenty. The cattle are sleek aud fat; the
pigs are fat; and the children are fat and bloom
ing with health. Both the great mountains are
in full view from the house; an extinct crater is
close at hand, a quarter of a mile of, which forms
the bed of a lake of fresh water, some two hun
dred yards across and twenty feet deep. \ half
a mile toward the point is a hill, the top Of which
is covered with what appear to be ruins, sup
posed by some to be of Spanish Origin-though
Colonel Jones, the worthy Police Magistrate Of
Honolulu, who has examined them, says they are
Aztec. The stones in sight above ground are
square, about four feet six inches thick. There
are two standing perpendicularly, about twenty
feet apart; and on the inshore side of the hill,
there is a line of stones standing upright against
the face of the hill, with their upper edges nearly
level with the top, with others lying horizontal,
with their outer edges lying even with the up
right stones, making one angle of a square. l
found one on the lowland that appeared to show
marks of a tool. These stones are all Of about
one size-four feet each way and six inches thick,
and are taken from one flow of lava. They can
be got from any size and thickness from the differ
ent beds Of pahOehOe on the seaside of the hill.
L visited a spriug Of warm water near this
place, under a precipice. The spring is twelve
feet deep, and the water is blood warm, and deli
cious to battle in-one dislikes TO leave it. The
water is impregnated with sulphur and other
mineral salts, and Is said to be a sure cure for
skin diseases and rheumatism. What a " water
ing place " it would soon become if only near
Honolulu : As It Is, it is not far from Hilo, from
which there is a good road along the Puma shore,
and the scenerY Is fine. IL will some day become