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

make record Of the magnificence OF the
hre and fury which made that pit?
Mile after mile, II a tale OF miles be
needed for the seeing OF power in its
Infinite degree, the eye sees the cliffs
square cut above the crater floor, square
cut with the mountain slope, above which
they do not rise single inch; one cannot
make too clear that impression Of a vast
dropping down; there is thrill OF fear
that 1t may drop still further while you
are below there. black, green, red, these
walls bound floor all black which from
the distance seems as Level as q floor of
carpentry. 1t is only when you get down
to 1t that you see how
INTO THE CRATER.
But before you see that, you have to face
the getting down. Only one path exists
through all that sweep of precipice, a
breakneck place of scrambling in and out
In fearsome zigzags down a sheer face of
rock. They tell you that the horse Is
surefooted, that he has carried blank
hundreds of people up and down that
trail. There are times when arithmetic
loses its power to console; this is one of
| them, and you feel that your own feet are
surer on such ladder, and disregarding
that difficult matter OF mounting again
on the other kind OF saddle, you dismount
and make the descent afoot and, II truth
| be told, letting yourself over certain
steepnesses with hand clutch on the
| ohelo bushes which knot their roots in
every rock Granny.
1t Is only on the return trip hours later
and perhaps just as we'll that 1t ia So
that you see the wayside cross which
marks the death spot OF one for whom
that scramble proved too much, the only
death recorded for Kilauea since the
heather days when Goddess Peles iucan-
| descent wrath sometimes refused to be
appeased with her usual sacrifice of red
hen and black pig and a bunch OF ohelo
berries, when she could be pacified only
by something that gave despairing
scream when it was tossed into the fire
lake in which Pele lived. Cruel days
OF heathendom! 1t is we'll that they have
passed away, that Kapiolani made an end
Of the last of Kilauea's "kapus'; we order
things so much better nowadays. Still
you may happen to see the Hawaiian
guide, Albert, as he helps you down the
slide, pick twig Of ohelo and slip it in
to his pocket, and you may chance to see
little sprig of green floating down
through the hot air into the pit where
Pele once lived, the Halema' uma'u; and
though Albert walks almost thirty miles
every Sunday to go to church and sing
hymns, you feel stray wonder as to
whether the old gods are, after all, quite
dead.
THE FLOOR OF THE CRATER.
AT last and out of breath you have
scram bled down to the floor of the crater,
and with the assistance OF a rock you find
that the Lee girl was right when she told
you Albert knew how. Level as that lava
floor looked from the brink of the preci-
pice, you find that now it has it's hollows,
and rarely can you see far ahead. At the
very beginning is bridge across deep
gorge in the rock, split in the lava
reaching to warm depths below, of which
you get Whit as you ride over. Here be-
gins the string of lava blocks which have
been set up to mark the path across the
lava surface, where in the dull sameness
it is easy to get lost and hard to find one
self or to be found when astray.
There Is not level spot aDyw here; the
surface shivers under the horses hoof in
CLASSY splinters with a crunching sound
as though one were going over split sugar.
At every turn the lava seems as though
frozen stiff in a wild rush to ingulf the
incautious trespasser-here in such weird
shapes as Niagara takes ON in winter,
there twisted like ropes and cables.
Everywhere are cracks and erevasses.
Besides the strange shapes OF the lava
under foot which hold the eye, there is
yet nothing to see but the ext Slope of
the AVA. ta~ NIX ii'tie valley into " hich
the string of the guide block shows the
path to descend, and tie wider view is
bounded by the lire OF cliffs quivering
through the hot emanations of the crater
You feel the heat, the CLASSY surface re-
fleets the SUP, no breeze dips down into
/ hat hole as it sweeps overhead about its
own business. and there is constantly
growing impression that the internal fires
crusted surface.
At last the corral, beyond which the
horses may not go, is reached. Here is
water, a need well appreciated for the last
mile or SO over that torrid plain. In Kill
auea the WELL borer would tap fire, not
wal er, and springs are replaced by vents
putting out steam and birthstone. But
few sheets of corrugated iron set on
slant serve to condense the vepor which
settles down at nigbtfall and to drip it
drop by drop into bucket in the shade
so that it maybe trifie less warm for
tourist and horse.
Beyond the corral the surface is more
rent and torn and twisted and jagged.
The lava is hot underfoot; almost every
little crack in the field is edged with
crust of dirty yellow from the birthstone
deposit; as you step across rift swelt-
ering gust OF sulphur and fused chemicals
Al. al n no hrapf hif,or