The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-01-31
Kilauea...The Largest Active Volcano
in the World.


covery of the islands it has been visited
by various exploring expeditions, and
by notable men from America and Eu-
rope.
Leaving Hilo-a picturesque little
town at the foot of Mauna Kea, facing
beautiful bay that curves gracefully
into the very streets-we soon reach
belt of woods, through which path
way leads for three or four miles. This
is the most pleasing part of the trip.
The grateful shade, the cool air, the
tropical growth, all conspire to make
it such. On either side are ugly holes,
nearly screened by the bushes and trees
so that their real ugliness is never
known except by some hapless creature
that steps off the trail.
But on we speed, making the best
time during the trip; and it is not long
before we wheel into full view of Lua
Pele, an immense basin, charred and
black, with columns of dense smoke
rising at the further end. A little gust
of wind drives the vapor from steam
crack on our right, directly in our
faces; and we realize that we have en-
tered the realm of Pele, the tabled god
dess of Kilauea.
These steam-cracks multiply on both
sides to the very gate, where we turn in
with shout to the inmates of Volcano
House. Three or four native men take
our horses, and we go to our rooms to
doff our clothes-for it has rained near
ly all the way from Hilo, and we are
wet, and hungry, and tired. A roaring
fire in New-England Fireplace bright
ems the large room; and we each take
rocking chair, and laugh merrily over
the exp PLOTS of the day. Our host tells
us we have made good time, 1880 feet
up from the sea-shore, thirty miles
away, in eight hours.
Supper over, we reach the door look
ing off on the crater just in time to see
a column of lava thrown up-probably
100 feet, our host tells us; and, at this
distance from the fires, three miles, we
can distinctly see great balls of fire,
like molten iron, falling into the burn
ing furnace. Occasionally the thick
clouds obscure the strange fireworks;
but the driving winds soon sweep them
away, and again we see fountains play
ing all over what is called Lake Hale
mauman. The damp, cold wind chills
us to the bone, and we gather round
our log-fire to get well toasted before
going to bed. Forty-five hundred feet
difference in altitude in a tropical land
makes itself felt, and our reverence for
Nature is quite overcome by our love
for personal comfort.
In the morning we got an early start.
The brink of the pit is only couple
OF hundred feet from the house; and
the pathway down has evidently been
the work of earthquakes, as the i'm
mense powders and other evidences of
great land-slides would indicate. Here
are perpendicular walls 1000 feet to
the floor of the crater. The shape of
the pit is oblong, and from the top the
floor seems to be level, on the whole,
with slight inclination towards Lake
Halemauman, the present seat of activ-
ity. Making the descent, we find our
alpenstocks in play. 1t is easy enough
going down; the hard work is in trying
to hold back. Here one meets with the
same difficulties in judging of distances
that is the case on water. But, before
we reach the house tonight, we shall
readily admit that the pit is. ten miles
in circumference, and a fifth of mile
NSSP OuOuSh SOl Oellh w OhoOL1O
several boosted American cities.
On nearer approach the floor reminds
one of a rolling prairie blackened by
the fire that has recently swept over it;
and, in places, we are struck with the
resemblance to an immense ice-foe, the
great cakes being piled up in endless
confusion. At one point, high ledge
of rock, somewhat like granite, looks
like an iron clad at anchor in this black
sea. 1t is said that this ledge has sue
cessively sunken and risen in great
eruptions, though no one has seen it in
motion. Possibly the rising and subsi-
dence of the floor of the crater has con-
veyed the impression that the ledge
moved, whereas it may have been sta
tionary. 1t is true, however, that i'm
mense masses of rock and lava are thus
borne up by the molten lava below, and
that they rise and fall with the ebb and
flow of the fiery tide, in much the same
way that buoys do along the sea-coast.
l take my first step on the floor of the
largest known of active volcanoes, and
it crackles under font like the icy sur
face on snow. When the lava, in flow
ing over given place, cools, it forms
thin crust of the consistency of glass,
hard and sharp, but exceedingly brittle.
Underneath this crust the lava congeals
= more slowly, and is dense and heavy,
whereas the crust is as light as char
coal.
How this thin layer glistens on its
upper side! In the sunlight it gives back
all the colors of the precious Jewels
On its surface it is comparatively
smooth; but here the light penetrates
millions of miniature cells, and makes
each one beautiful with a beauty all it's
own. Our guide, who has come with
us to carry our basket of goods and
canteen of water, and to show us the
way, pretends-with how much truth [
am not able to say-that this wafer-like
crust in some places is only treach-
erous covering to concealed caves and
assures, into which it might be fatal to
fall. And so we follow his lead after
this, rather than risk it on our own re-
sponsibility. And don't we keep close
at his heelsP-several times literally
stepping on them, so concerned are we
lest we fail to do the thing lust RIGHT.