The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-07-18
MADAME PELE'Su RE4LH.
THE Volcano of Rilauea as it
Now Is.

With so changeable a dame as
Madame Pele, two years witnesses
a great many changes. So find
it on visiting Kilauea after that in
teryal 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 single fountain and 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 lake of fire of
over nine hundred feet in diameter
surrounded with broad fat plain
forming a rim perhaps five hundred
feet wide, the whole inclosed by
PERCEPTIONS 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, fiat
rim at the bottom surrounding a
circular lake which is inclosed with
a 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 q
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 tc
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 Il pair of shoes, to the edge Of
the lake. 1t was 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 a 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 I'M
capped artesian we'll. From this
fountain it flowed rapidly to al
parts Of the lake. Elsewhere there
were fountains, or rather, sputter
| ing upheavals and pillows of liquid
fire. Words cannot describe the
impressiveness of the scene. At al
times there was a constant crack
ing, crashing noise, caused appar
emily by the tremendous outward
push % 5iIe melted melted lava iii the l5h5
against the walls of its cone. Block:
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 crosse!
the path about two hundred yard:
from the foot of the descent below
the Volcano house, has been nearly
filled with lava; a flow from be
low probably. There is very little
activity elsewhere in the crater, ex
cept near Halemaumau, where th'
heat and steam from cracks ha
visibly increased.
N