El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-10-30
THE HAWAIIAN VOLCANO.
impressive Effect of Pele's Crater

| impressive t.IIecC OI fele 5 CrdUer.
What contrast! What a wonder
was suddenly opened to our gaze. Mr..
Thurston spoke truly when he called
this country the paradise of the Paci-
fic and the Inferno of the world"
The house sat securely on the cliff.
Flow ers biComed and the trees grew
bout it, yet from every crack and
seam in the earth there issued sui
phurous vapor and Kissing steam from
those subterranean fires. One is timid
about approaching the great crater at
first sight, but after a nights rest in
| the volcano house, ard assurances from
| the guide that there is no danger, he
ventures to follow him in the path that
goes winding, wandering down from
the beetlipg crags to the scOrched and
chasm-riven crater floor.
Here the tourist fuds himself in q
vast valley, circular in form and
twenty-five miles in circumference.
! Across the hard, blistered lava, which
! crunches and grinds beneath the iron
shoes of the horses, our party started
toward the great column of smoke and
flame in the distance.
From every crack and seam of the
crater's floor there issued steam, some
times so hot as to forbid near ap-
proach- When within fourth of
mile of Kilauea's eternal fires, we halt
ed at paddock of lava chunks, left
our horses and proceeded on foot up
the slight ascent to this wonder of the
world.
In my hand l carried green alga-
roba stick which [ held for moment
over one of the seams from which tips
of fire could be seen, and in moment
it was in blaze. We lit our cigars at
Pele's fires, and, proceeding up the |
slight ascent, stood on the brink of that |
lake of fire and birthstone.
"Oh, what wonderr' Some gave ut |
terance to sharp cries of alarm and |
shrank back, but the remainder stood, |
silenced BY the sublime awe which the |
wonderful inspires. Below, like vast
caldron, the boiling, Kissing and roar
ing Fl es of molten lava seemed an ocean
in a storm. 1t was sea of 1ame-an
awful lake whose fires are never
quanched. Bubbling, Kissing, boiling
and tossing, it only needed the with
ing figures to he an incarnation of
Dante's wonderful dream. Jets and
fountains of flame played fretfully over
the surface of the boiling mass. Free
quently crust gathered over the sur
face, and through it the glow of those
eternal fires dimly shOne; then some
wild internal upheaval would shatter
his crust into fragments and plunge it
below to be again melted oy the deluge
If fre.--Godey's Magazine.
Terrific Explosion.
Captain John 1. CHM returned last
evening from Sonora mining trip.
He reports tremendous explosion of {
giant powder in the tunnel of the Pala-
las mine at Nacosari, Moctezuma dis
riot, Sonora. The company had 120
ifty-two pound boxes of giant powder
towed away in an excavation off from
he side of the tunnel. A Mexican Ia
'orer by the careless handling of his
andle set on fire the sawdust in which
he boxes were packed. The American
brennan sent the bands all out of the
unnel as he tried himself to extinguish
he flames. But this was found impos-
IDLE, and seeing what was coming, he
scaped himself just in time.
The force of the explosion was ire
1endous, lifting a solid mass of rock
nd earth 200 feet thick, up for about
ne foot, and then letting it fall back.
he force ofthe blast exploded lot of
ercussion caps stored in building at
be mouth of the mine, the structure
eng entirely destroyed. No one was
urt, but the interior of the mine was
omewhat diss ranged.