The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-05-12
THREATENED ERUPTION.
The Fires of Mama Lon, the HA-
waiian Volcano, Are Again
at Work.

at Werk.
For the first time in IA years the great
crater of Mokuaweoweo, at the summit
of the high mountain of Mauna Loa, on
the island of Hawaii, has commenced to
show signs of activity, and hundreds
Of settlers on coffee plantations around
the base of the mountain have become
greatly alarmed over the prospect of an
eruption that may be accompanied, as
at all previous times, by a flow of lava
that will destroy thousands of acres of
tillable land and probably wipe out
many plantations and homes.
The apparent increasing activity of
Mokuaweoweo has not come unexpest-
eddy. For several months the active
crater of Kilauea, on the side of Mauna
Loa, about which so much has been said
and written, has shown signs of life,
and those who watch the volcanic phe-
nomena closely have predicted that
great eruption would take place very
soon. But it was only last week that
the mountain crater commenced to
smoke. Particulars of the phenomenon
as it appeared to the people in the val
leys below are meager, but the officers
and passengers of the steamer Mauna
Loa, which coasts along the windward
side of the island, report that heavy
cloud of smoke and steam was pouring
from the summit of the mountain when
they last saw it from the sea, and had
been so for two days.
Since the last great eruption and lava
flood in 1884, when the lava stream
came down within two miles of the
city of Hilo, the crater of Mokuaweo-
weo has been apparently lifeless. DR..
Guppy, German scientist, spent four
weeks at the summit of Mauna Loa
alone last summer, and during that
time tramped all over the hardened bed
of the crater, making accurate meas
urements of it, observing the tempera-
ture, and studying the characteristics
of the place generally. He afterward
expressed the opinion that the volcano
was merely sleeping. A brief account
of Dr. Guppy's daring adventure and
its results was published in the Chroni-
Gle at the time.
Prof. Friedlander, another German
scientist, who has been making IA study
OF the islands of the Pacific for some
time, has just returned from Hawaii,
where ne spent several weeks in the
vicinity of the crater of Kilauea. From
his observations there he predicted
that another great volcanic eruption
on Hawaii is close at hand. The large
volume of smoke and steam that usual
ly pours forth from Kilauea has ceased
altogether during the past fortnight,
and only thin. blush vapor is rising
In the meantime the steam vents on the
higher ground are pouring forth a very
much greater volume of steam. Prof.
Friedlander accounts for this by saving
that the surface rock is becoming
greatly heated, and that the surface
water is rapidly vaporized by it, where
as it formerly ran down to the deeper
levels before coming in contact with
the super-heated rock, when the steam
found vent only through the cracks in
the bed of the crater.
The great lava flows which cover no
small portion of Hawaii have most of
them come from the crater of Mokua-
weowco, bursting through the sides OF
the mountain at an elevation of from
10000 to -, 900 feet, whereas the crater
of kilauea is but 1000 feet above sea
level. Old settlers say that whenever
Mauna Loa commences to smoke lava
flow is sure to follow. Without warn
ing usually a stream of lava bursts
through the side of the mountain and
flows down into the fertile valleys, car
rving death and destruction with it. At
the same time the crater of Klauea
usually fills up with molten lava, some
times brimming over, but never to any
great extent.
No one has essayed to climb MauEa
Loa in several months. as the mountain
has, for the first time in several years,
been covered with cap of snow that
extends almost down to Kilauea.-San
Francisco Chronicle.