The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-07-08
THE CRATER OF KILAURA.
A Wonderful Spouting Volcano of
the Sandwich Islands.

i FROM science
The crater is huge depression or pit,
about three miles long and two miles
broad. The walls are mostly precipitous,
though quite irregular, and the floor is
some 300 feet below the surface OF the
island at that point. Forty years ago it
was several hundred feet lower Standing
on the brink of the crater and looking
down, one is reminded of a great cellar
after fire. Everything is black or rusty,
and the smoke and steam coming up from
dark clelts put you in mind of the charred
and smoking timbers to be seen after
conAagration.
A zigzag path, a mile long, leads down
through ferns and bushes TO the black lava,
and then you step out on sea of absolute
desolation. The lava is cold now, but
there are the most abundant evidences of
its recent fusion. The surface is greatly
varied; here being nearly smooth, and there
swelling up into steep hillocks, perhaps
with caves beneath them, into which you
can creep or perhaps walk upright Cracks
abound, and out of some of them the hot
Stag has oozed, and flowed and cooled and
hardened.
After walking over two miles of this
rough floor came suddenly to the brink
of second pit in the floor of the greater
one. This second pit, the "Haem' oum
ou' of the natives, is about half a mile in
diameter, and at the time of my visit its
floor was some two hundred and fifty feet
below the point where | was standing.
Some adventurous climbers descended the
precipltus sides and actually stood on the
freshly cooled lava, but | did not accom-
pany them. In the centre of this lower
floor was the lake of molten lava, nearly
circular in outline, and about one thousand
feet across. Its level surface was largely
covered by thin gray crust, portions of
which would often sink and reveal the
glowing liquid beneath.
The fiery lake was never free from agita-
tions, particularly around its edges, but the
extent aud violence of the activity were
constantly changing. Occasionally liquid
hillock would rise like an enormous bubble,
then sink back again, while puff of thin
blue smoke wOuld slowly rise and float off
from the spot, showing that in a condensed
state it had doubtless been the lifting
agent. But most of the agitation resem-
bled the lively boiling of kettle of water
over brisk fire, The glowing fountains
would jump and dance in the widest man
ner, often throwing up the fiery drops to
height of 50 feet, while waves of lava
would surge against the curb of the lake
with sound like that of ocean breakers.
In the night time, seen through an opera
glass, the display was beautiful and grand
beyond description. The continual falling
of half cooled drops Of lava around the
edge of the lake, combined with the wash
of the fire waves, serves to build up curb,
which grows in proportion to the activity
of the lake. On one side of the pool of
melted rock its top was some 30 feet higher
than the floor which joined the base Ol the
curb to the walls of the pit. One night
the lava rose in the lake aud poured over
the curb on that side in a magnificent cas-
cade of fire. It was not possible to get in
front of che overflow, but it was estimated
that the stream was so feet wide
The motion of the current was like thaa
of water cascade, but when the food
reached the floor of the pit it quickly be-
gan to CONCEAL on the top while the under
partran until itreached the con6ning walls.
Another overflow, where the curb was no6so-
high, came directly toward my point Of
observation, and l could clearly see thai
the central point of steam moved swiftest,
causing the hardening waves to assume the
well-known crescent forms, By such
overhows from the molten lake the inner
pit is being gradually filed up; in fact, It's
floor has risen several hundred feet the
past few years. The lake rises pain passn,
the curb never rising very high above the
| floor
What the result will be is uncertain,
Sho2ld the lava continue to rise, the pit
will soon be filed, and will overflow iRio
the basin of Kilauea itself, Rnt instead
of this the bottom of the pit may drop
out, so to speak, as il did very suddenly
before this rise, and instead of gazing into
lake of FIRE the tourist may be compelled
to look into huge smoking hole some
FIVE or six hundred feet deep Doubtless
the whole floor of Kilaaea rests on very
hot foundation, as the steam which asceuds
from many cracks indicates; but at the
time of my visit there was no melted lava
visible except in the lake which | have
described
What the Cable Brings
From Lipplncot's
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