The Mena star., 1898-06-29
MAUNA L0A AT WORK.
The Great Volcano of Hawaii Is Re
 ported to Be Rekindling.
After Fourteen Years of Quietuae tn. Crater of kiIauea Gives Signs of Once More Break
 ing Out.

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 preyious times, by 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 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 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- cle at the time.
 Prof. Friedlander, another German 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 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, bluish 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 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 bed of the crater.
 Hc great IdNd nOWS WLlSA So'SA AS small portion of Hawaii have most ot them come from the crater of Mokua- weoweo, bursting through the sides ot the mountain at an elevation of from 10000 to 12,000 feet, whereas the crater of Kilauea is but 4,000 feet above sea level. Old settlers say that whenever Mauna Loa commences to smoke a lava n
 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 withit 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 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.