The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-07-19
VOMITING STONES
IntGISpPrSed With Sulphur and
MOlttn Lava.
LATEST NEWS FROM ERUPTION
Hair Breadth Escapes CT Venture
at the Volcanoes Mouth.

The arrival of the W. G.. Hall from
two days later news from the volcano:
as we'll as 4 number of returning pas
sengers who had visited the scene OF
the eruption.
The Advertisers special correspond
ent, who was with the first party to
reach the 1899 flow which went up on
July Z, and whose thrilling description
was published at length in Mondays
paper. furnishes the following uhdsr
date of July 10th:
Nothing very important has trans
pired since l wrote you last. The fire
in the upper crater has mostly dis
appeared and it IS now safe TO ap-
proach it. When we were there Il;
was not safe to go nearer than 500
feet.
Several parties have gone up since
we were there, among them W. Il.
Castles party of fourteen and the
Davey party from Kailua.
Friday night between 9 and 10
o'clock. there was a great deal OF ac-
tivity on the mountain; it was wit
messed by the crew OF the Kilohana
between Kapua and South Point. also
by some OF the residents of Kau.
'Punaluu was washed out by a tidal
wave in 1865. All that remained after
the tidal wave was three cocoanut ana
one palm tree. Since that time the
cocoanut trees have borne no fruit, but
strange to say, after a lapse of 81
years a solitary cocoanut, has made II
appearance on one of the trees. and
| when Captain Simerson saw it about
four weeks ago, he prophesied an
| not a superstitious man. but in some
way he connects the birth OF the young
cocoanut with the eruption OF 1865.
1T looks as if the Kau flow has
stopped flowing for several days. Vol
cano house is crowded to its full ca
pacity."
| Stearns Buck, who was Il member of
the volcano party, including Frank Da-
vey, Charles kluegel, Jr.. and others.
tells of a narrow escape from suffoca-
tion that the party had. They were
on their way back from Mauna Loa' 5
summit. In front and to- their right
the craters were belching forth their
| fiery lava. Suddenly from one of the
openings a dense cloud of sulphurous
smoke arose. \ change in the wind
brought the suffocating mass directly
in front OF the party. Behind and to-
the other side were the streams of
molten lava and the belching craters.
| Death seemed certain and imminent.
But a chance still remained. The dark
cloud kept drawing nearer when a gust
of wind struck it in the center. form
the tired and footsore travellers dashed
forward at their utmost speed. As they
finally flung themselves to the ground.
exhausted, yet safe. the dense mass
again settled low and went on its chok-
ing. suffocating way.
Mr.. Buck says that he would not
take the trip again for $4,000.
1T was rough in the extreme" he
said. For miles and miles we tramped
over the very hardest kind OF country.
But l feel satisfied. Why. the cloud
view from Nauna Loa's summit was
enough TO make one forget that he had
gone through such trip. Below us On
| all sides, stretching away as far as the
eye could see. We're the vari-colored
clouds rising and falling like a Polar
sea. The whole earth was hidden by
the Cloud-ocean. The fiery fountains
of molten lava. the boulders tossed
hundreds of feet into the air, the
rumbling in the bowels of the earth.
all combine. of course. to make spec
tacle beggaring description
The party OF which Mr.. Buck and
Mr. Davey were members suffered
greatly from lack of sufficient food ard
water. Some of the party were in such
distress at one time that they imagined