Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-08-14

4 a
yer'', and the disappointment continues.
Now you feel at intervals upon your
cheeks a breath Of warm and clammy
vapor with the reek Of birthstone, and
there Is some comfort in knowing that
the stories OF volcanoes hereabouts have
at least that much Of foundation. In the
dark OF the evening the stage draws up at
the Volcano house, and even before the
question is put, Peter Lee answers 1t by
| saying:
"You can't see the volcano at night,
cause there's wapor there every night.u
1t is rather unsatisfactory to know that
great volcano Is within thirty yards, and
yet invisible. The trouble Is that every
body has hammered into his mind in ear
ly school days an ideal volcano, smooth
and pointed cone, shaft OF smoke, and
monstrous cloud filing half the sky;
Vesuvius In fact. Now Kilauea does not
rear its head an inch above the surface;
1t is place where for many square miles
the bottom has dropped out OF things and
has sunk 500 feet. No wonder that 1t is
vain to look for 1t on the road. But both
our newly naturalized volcanoes on Maui
ma Loa, Kilauea on the slope and Mokau-
weoweo on the summit, are greater than
Vesuvius or Etna, and when they are
boiling their enormous lakes OF flaming
lava, they seem to be doing something
bigger than coughing up ashes and
pumice and such light stuff and making
a sulphurous fuss about 1t, which is about
the limit of the powers OF the Italian
craters.
AN EvAsIvE VOLCANO.
With earliest dawn you look out OF your
window, and still the evasive crater is
hiding itself and the mighty forces of
nature keep themselves hidden. The view
is stretch Of dun mountain slope; not a
tree in sight, not single precipice or crag
nor yet boulder large enough to attract
the gaze-a smooth slope OF fern and low
bush. Before the Volcano house is gar
den, with flowers OF America OF the tenn
perate zone. A hundred feet away the
hedge Of roses poises at the edge Of lake
of white fog. For miles the eye traces
the shore of that white and motionless
lake.
There is surely Peter Lees "wapor," and
somewhere in that pond is the volcano,
leisurely beginning its daily exhibition.
You are disposed in the chill morning air
to hold Peter Lee responsible for the
failure of his show, when you learn that
he has spent the last thirty years at the
crater. But he, familiar with volcanic
habits, assures you that there never is
anything to see until after breakfast, and
tells you the story OF the ohelo berry,
which used to be sacred to the Goddess
PeIe in the old days before Chieftess Kap-
iolani-not Kalakaua's queen, but an an
cestress--stood on the crater lip and defied
the goddess and all her internal pow
ers, and the "kapus" of the ancient and
bloody paganism were broken, and
Hawaii accepted the Christianity that had
been sent out from Massachusetts to pre-
pare the eight islands in the fulness OF
time to become American. You can eat
some of the berries for breakfast, he says.
So you can, for breakfast and for every
meal besides, while you tarry on the GRAFT
er edge, to say nothing OF picking your
fill as you explore the patches OF soil
which have gathered in between the lava
sheets for the encouragement OF a stunted
mountain vegetation.
The story interests, but nothing can re-
move the sense of disappointment at the
way in which the expected grandeur of
the volcanic spectacle sneaks under its
white blanket. But breakfast comes on,
and there are bowls OF the ohelo berries,
good to eat, satisfactory to pagan god
dess in q fire pit and satisfactory to
modern sig htseer in cooler surroundings:
like cranberry grated on huckleberry
bush, rome one says, the red sizi OF the
one and the sweetness OF the other.
Then the horses are brought around
from line OF grsss-t Matched buts, which
prove to De sta oies, for it is three miles to
the mouth of the pit OF fire to the
Halema'uma'u about which scholars in
language may wrangle without end as to
whether it has apostrophes in its spelling
or not, and dependent on that point
whether the name means tine house OF
ferns or the house everlasting. The jour
ney is fairly out OF sight. You go hum
bred feet to the brink OF the white lake;
at that Jumping off place you make
vertical descent OF 500 feet, and the rest
of the distance is to be ridden over the
lava crust OF the crater itself.
Before you can begin to be nervous at
the prospect of cropping in the white
depths Of that vapor lake-for you doubt
Peter Lee since breakfast is past and still
there is nothing to see-a new problem
arises. The Volcano house stables have
hut one side-saddle, and that Is already
occupied by an elderly lady who may not
be dislodged Every other woman must
ride Hawaiian fashion-that is man
fashion, astride-or else must walk.
Now you revise your ideas OF the verac-
ity of Peter Lee and of the grandeur Oh
Kilauea as we'll. While you have been
worrying over the introduction to horse
womanship after the Hawaiian fashion,
the sun has brought its beams to bear on
Ioha and IL has vanished except