The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-10-13
THE CRATER OF KILAUEA.
PELE's PALACE OF DEATH-CRIMsoN SEAS
AND FIERY FOUNTAINS.

The following picture of the fear
ful crater of Kilauea is from the Homo
lulu Advertiser of July 26: Tourists to
the volcano for many years past all re-
member certain active pools of lava, the
North and South Lakes, which ordinari-
ly bubbled and tossed fiery food at a
depth of about 120 feet below the floor
OF the great crater. Now these lakes
have all been filed up, and there have
| arisen peaks and cones of hard lava that
rise over 100 feet above the south bank
OF the great crater, which is about 1000
feet high. But there has burst forth a
new opening in the great crater floor not
far distant from the old lakes, and a new
lake, almost round in form, about 600
feet across and some seventy feet in
depth, in ordinary stages, below the sur
rounding brink, Here the great Ha-
walian volcano presents the most varied
fantastic play OF liquid lava. Here are
some OF the phases of the play of fire
lake as recently observed in the crater of
hilauea. Sometimes it seems almost to
sleep, and the disappointed visitor looks
down into black valley and observes
smoking pit giving no more evidence of
combustion than tar kiln. But the
observer stands on the brink of the pit,
or great pool or lake, as ncw appears,
about 600 feet across, and whose surface
is about seventy feet below him. And
what is this surface? 1t presents dark
silver-gray hue, with a satiny shine
This is crust of quiescent lava, and the
observer who has expected to have his
sense OF wonder strained to speechless-
ness, says: els this all? No. look!
the frozen, CLASSY lake is alive. What
heave in the center-some mighty beast
lifting up that floor | Now a wave of
undulation runs round the incrusted
marge. And there is an outburst, a
blood-red fount, gushing and bubbling
from one of earth's arteries. The broad
dusk of the lake heaves and trembles
Fitful gaseous flashes fit across, and
now the moving floor cracks and SER
rated fissure like the suture of a skull
runs from marge to marge, and quick,
darting streaks, sudden cracks of the
crust, shoot across in ali directions.-
These serrated streaks are at first rosy
lines, on the gray surface, then they
widen like crimson ribbons, broadening,
to the view. They undulate with the
billowy motion of the whole upheaying
surIaCe. auUUneT CrImSOn IOunt springs
up along the now fretting and roaring
rim OF the lake; and another, and another
of now wildly upleaping fountains of fire
toss high their cory crests, even casting
gouts and clots of the red spray that fall
and harden near the observers feet. By
this time the spirit of our inferno is
The whole ireee red lake is
all boil, and leap, and roar. It is more
than the roar of loud sea surfs beating
the old bluffs. The surging tide of the
molten earth sounds a deeper believing |
bass than any note of the sounding sea.
And now the heaved-up crust broken
into fragments is churned up and dis
solved in the boiling food. The roaring
gulf is now, indeed, a vortex of indescrib-
able glories and terrors. Caves open on
the sides of the surrounding wall. and a
man sees more of hell than he ever
imagined. A thousand demons are now
holding high carnival in this bottomless
pit-and the leap and play of fiery
Hood, the dance and swell of red surg
ng tide, and the roar and shrek of the
Tread forces issuing from the red hot
oulsating heart of the planet, make a
thoughtful observer hold his hand to his
OWN heart and say, ''This is enough; the
Almighty is here"