Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-01-22
Kilauea---The Largest Active Volcano
in the World.

| OWuNWAOA ASluLAuo3 10 bhV 4dA BOob dOOlFN
volcano in the world. Since the dis
coVery of the islands it has been visited
by various exploring expeditions, and
by notable men from America and Eu-
rope. #I
Leaving Hilo-a picturesque little
town at the foot of Mauna Kea, facing
a 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 a 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 60 to our rooms to
dOf 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 a New-England Fireplace bright
ems the large room; and we each take a
rocking.chair and laugh merrily over
the exploits of the day. Our host tells
us we have made good time, 4,500 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-fVe 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 a 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 fifth of mile
deep-large enough certain to entomb |
several bOasted American cities
On nearer approach the floor reminds
one of rolling prairie blackened by
the fire that has recently swept over it;
and, in places, we are struck with the
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
ike an iron clad at anchor in this black
Iea. 1t is said that this ledge has sue
sunken and risen in great
though no one has seen it in
notion. Possibly the rising and subsi-
ience of the floor of the crater has con-
Keyed the impression that the ledge
moved, whereas it may have been sta
ionary. 1t is true, however, that inn
nense masses of rock and lava are thus
,orne up by the molten lava below, and
hat they rise and fall with the ebb and
low of the fiery tide, in much the same
way that buoys do along the sea-coast.
/ take my first step on the floor of the
argest known of active volcanoes, and
t crackles under foot like the icy sur
ace on snow. When the lava, in flow
ng over a given place, cools, it forms
thin crust of the consistency Of glass,
ard and sharp, but exceedingly brittle.
Underneath this crust the lava congeals
lore slowly, and is dense and heavy,
yhereas the crust is as light as char
oal.
How this thin layer glistens on its
pper side! In the sunlight it gives back {
Il the colors of the precious Jewels. s
IN its surface it is comparatively
mooth; but here the light penetrates {
lillions of miniature cells, and makos {
aoh one beautiful with beauty all its {
wn. Our guide, who has come with {
) to carry our basket of goods and 8
anteen of water, and to show us the |
ay, pretends-with how much truth [
N not able to say-that this wafer-like l
'ust in some places is only treach- c
'ous covering to concealed caves and /
3sures, into which it might be fatal to a
IL. And so we follow his lead after f
lis, rather than risk it on our own re- i
And don't we keaD clOsa 4