The record-union., 1898-03-28
MAUNA L0A SMOKING.
MOKUAWEOWEO SHOWS SIGNS
OF ACTIVITY.
1t Has Been Sleeping for Fourteen
Years, But an Eruption
Is Now Pending.

SAN FRANCISCO, March PA spe-
cial correspondent of the "Chromcle"
says:
Fer the first time in fourteen years the
great crater of Mokuaweoweo, at the
summit of the high mountain of Mauna
Lea, on the island of Hawaii, has COM
menced to show signs of activity, and
hundreds of settlers on coffee planta-
tions around the base OF the mountain
have become greatly alarmed over the
prospect Of an eruption, that may De ac-
companied. as at all previous times, by
a flow of lava that will destroy thou
sands of acres of tillable land and prob
ably wipe out many plantations and
homes.
The apparent increasing activity Of
MokuaWeoWeo has not come unexDeCt-
edly. For several months the active
crater of Kilauea, on the side OF Mauna
Loa, about which so much has ben
said and written, has shown signs of
life, and those who watch the volcanic
phenomena closely have predicted that
a 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 a 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 Mokuaweoweo has
been apparently lifeless DR.. Guppy, a
| German scientist, spent four weeks at
the summit of Mauna Loa alone last
summer and during that time tramped
| al! over the hardened bed of the crater,
making accurate measurements Of 1t,
! observing the temperature and study
| ing the characteristics of the place gen
orally. He afterword expressed the
opinion that the volcano was merely
sleeping. A brief account of Dr. Guppy's
daring venture and its results were
published in the Chronicle" at the
time.
Professor Friedlander, another Ger
man scientist, who has been making a
! study of the islands of the Pacific for
sCme time, has just returned from Ha-
Waii, where he spent several weeks in
| the vicinity of the crater of Kilauea.
| From his observations there he pre-
! dicted that another great volcanic Crup-
! tion on Hawaii is close at hand. The
| huge volume of smoke and steam that
usually Dours forth from Kalauea has
| ceased altogether during the past fort
night, and only thin blush vapor is
| rising. In the meantime the stream
vents on the higher ground are pour
ing forth very much greater volume
of steam. Professor Friedlander ac-
counts for this by saying that the sur
face rock is becoming greatly heated
and that the surface water is speedily
vaporiZed by it, whereas it formerly
ran down to the deeper levels before
coming into contact with the super
heated rock, when the steam found vent
only through the cracks in the bed Of
the crater
No one has essayed to climb Mauna
Loa in several months, as the mountain
has for the first time in several years
been covered with a cap of snow that
extends almost down to Kilauea.