The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1893-07-25
MADAME PELE's REALM.
The Volcano of Kilauea as ii
Now Is.
bushel.


Now Is.
With so changeable dame as
Madame Pele, two years witnesses
great many changes. So l find
it on visiting Kilauea after that in
terval. When here in 1891, Hale
maumau was a yawning chasm,
much resembling an inverted cone,
having an altitude of five hundred
feet. At the apex or bottom the
fires were just returning. There
was a single fountain and a little
pond of lava perhaps thirty feet in
diameter. On every side tremen-
dous precipices with piles of debris
running to the lowest point.
Today there is a lake OF fire of
over nine hundred feet in diameter
surrounded with broad fiat plain
forming rim perhaps five hundred
feet wide, the whole inclosed by
precipitous walls hard by over a
hundred feet high. That is, the
bottom of Halemaumau has risen
certainly four hundred feet in two
years. How much Of this is from
the infowing of lava and how much
from an upward thrust is impossi-
bic to say. But the present devel-
opment is at least beautifully sim
pie. A nearly round pit, a flat
rim at the bottom surrounding a
circular lake which is inclosed with
wall tilted from the edge of the
rim at angle of say 400. In short,
the lake is in a truncated cone. The
surface is about thirty feet higher
than the surrounding rim, or "black
ledge" as Mr.. Lee has named it.
That is, it fills up to about that
level, when the walls are unable
to longer stand the pressure and a
break occurs at some point and the
whole glowing contents rushes out
and floods the ledge until a general
level is attained, when the walls of
the cone build up again and the
process is repeated. This has hap
pened since our arrival and the
lake is again filling. A path has
been made down the northeast
bank of the pit and it is possible to
approach the central lake when the
fires are not too active.
Two days after the flooding of
the surrounding floor, or rim, which
filled up about ten feet, l crossed
on the glowing surface, with the pen
atty of blistered feet and the loss
of pair of shoes, to the edge of
the lake. 1t was a wonderfully i'm
pressive sight. On the south shore
a continuous surge of fire dashed |
against the wall, throwing spray
far over the bank to height of per-
haps fifty feet. Just under the |
north bank, at intervals of about !
two minutes, immense volumes of |
lava appeared to rise from the
depths much resembling the crest |
of the flow from a powerful un-
capped artesian well. From this
fountain it flowed rapidly to all |
parts of the lake. Elsewhere there |
we're fountains, or rather, sputter-
ing upheavals and pillows of liquid |
fire. Words cannot describe the |
impressiveness of the scene. At all |
times there was a constant crack |
ing, crashing noise, caused appar-
emily by the tremendous outward
push of the melted lava in the lake |
against the walls of its cone. Blocks
and slabs of lava were constantly |
sliding down the outer face and the |
appearances indicate a rapid en-
largement of its area.
At some time in the past two |
years, the deep crack which crosses |
the path about two hundred yards |
from the foot of the descent below |
the Volcano house, has been nearly |
filed with lava a flow from be- |
low probably. There is very little |
activity elsewhere in the crater, ex-
cept near Halemaumau, where the |
heat and steam from cracks has
visibly increased.
The mathematician of our party |
has estimated that the lake con-
tains about S4,611,OOO cubic feet
of melted matter
The volcano is growing in activi-
ty, and is increasingly interesting
and worthy of the attention of tour
lists as well as the naturalist.
w. R. CASTLE.
Kilauea, July II, 1898.