The Winslow mail., 1898-06-18
MAUNA L0A AT WORK,
The Great Volcano of Hawaii Is Re-
ported to Be Rekindling.
After Fourteen Years Of Quietude the
Crater OF kiIauep Gives signs
of once Mere Break
Ing Out.


For the first time in il years the great
crater of MoliuaweoWeo, 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
MokuaYeoweo has not come uneXpect-
edly, 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 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
Lon, which coasts along the windward
side Ct the island, report that q 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
food, 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, a 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
lrements OF it, observing the tempera-
tGre, and studying the characteristics
CT the place generally. He afterward
expressed the opinion that the volcano
was merely sleeping. A brief account
Of Or. Gpppy's daring adventure and
its results was published in the Chroni-
Gle at the time,
scientist, who has been making a study
OF the islands of the Pacific for some
time, has Just returned from Hawaii,
where he spent several weeks in the
,iciaity OF the crater of Kilauea. From
iiis observations there he predicted
that another great volcanic eruption
on Hawaii is close at hand. The large
fef O1~ 1e&a ~ Lo4
iy pcurs 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 very
much greater volume of steam. Prof.
Friedlander accounts for this by saying
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 led of the crater.
= The great lava flows which cover no
small portion of Hawaii have most of
them come from the crater of Mol3ua-
weoweo, bursting through the sides of
the mountain at an elevation of from
10000 to 12,OG0 feet, whereas the crater
Of Kilauea is but 1000 feet above sea
level. Old settlers say that whenever
Mauna Loa commences to smoke a 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
rying death and destruction with it. AT
the same time the crater of Kilauea
usually fills up with molten lava, some
times brimming over, but never to any
great extent.
No one has essayed to climb Mauna
E.oa 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,