Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-10-06
A Live Yolcaro.

The Honolulu Sandwich Islands)
Advertiser- has the following graphic
description Of the appearance Of the
great lakes of lava recently formed by
the volcano Of Kilauea:
Tourists to the volcano for MANY
years past all remember certain active
pools of lava, the North and South
lakes, which ordinarily bubbled and
tossed fiery food at depth of about
l20 feet below the floor of the great
crater. Now these lakes have all been
filled 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
surrounding brink
Here the great Hawaiian volcano pre-
sents the most varied fantastic play of
liquid lava. Here are some of the
phases Of the play Of fire lake, as re-
Gently observed in the great crater Of
Kilauea. Sometimes it almost seems to
sleep, and the disappointed visitor
looks down into a black valley and OBJ
serves 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 now
appears, about 900 feet across, and
whose surface is about seventy feet be-
low him. And what is this surface? It
presents dark silver-gray hue, with a
satiny shine. This is crust Of quies-
cent lava, and the observer who has ex-
pected to have his sense Of wonder
strained to speechlessness, saws els
this all ?" Mol look the frozen.
CLASSY lake is alive.
What heave in the center-some
mighty beast lifting up that floor /
Now wave of undulation runs round
the incrusted marge. And there is an
outburst, blood-red fount, gushing
and bubbling from one of earth's arter-
les. The broad disk Of the lake heaves
and trembles. Fitful gaseous flashes
fit across, and now the moving floor
cracks and serrated issure like the
sutnre of skull runs from marge to
aarge, and quick, darting streaks, sud
den cracks of the crust, shoot across in
all directions. These serrated streaks are
at first rosy lines on the gray surface,
then they widen like crimson ribbons,
broadening to the view. They undu-
late with the billowy motion of the
whole upheaving surface. Another cr1m-
son fount 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 aroused,
The whole fierce red lake is all boil and
leap and roar. It is more than the roar
OF loud sea surfs beating bold bluffs.
The surging tide of the molten earth
sounds deeper, believing bass than
any note of the sounding sea. And now
the heaved-up crust, broken into frag-
ments, is churned up and dissolved in
the boiling food. The roaring gulf is
now, indeed, vortex of indescribable
glorles and terrors. Caves open on the
sides of the surrounding wall, and q
man sees more of hell than he ever
imagined. A thousand demons are now
holding high carnival in this bottom
less pit-and the leap and play of a
fiery food-the dance and swell OF q
red, surging tide, and the roar and
shrek of the dread forces issuing from
the red hot pulsating heart Of the plan
ct, make thoughtful observer hold his
hand to his own heart and say, g ssThis is
enough; the Almighty is here"