The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-09-22
FIRES
IN THE.
CRATER
The Senators Get a
Good Look at
Them.
HALEMAUMAU
THROWS UP LAVA
A Beautiful and Impressive Sight
in the Domain of the
Fire Goddess.

Madame Pele ordered her firemen
about right smartly in honor of the
members of the party of Senators who
visited Halemaumau on Friday night.
After a short period of seeming ces-
sation of activity when the crater was
reached, it was to discover that the
lava had again broken through the
crust and for a space of perhaps $4,000
square feet there were visible the red
badges of fire.
The lake of fire is not however one
unbroken line of liquid lava, but all
over the surface there are patches of
cooling substance, ever changing it's
forms and developing new shapes and
cracks. When Guide Alex. led the
members of the visiting party up to
the rim of the crater the mass of black
framed in bright lines of red was brok-
en- by few cross stripes. There We're
forms which suggested figures and for
a few moments a number could be trac-
ed upon the surface, but there was no
continuity of shape in the mass.
To the diapason of rumblings which
never ceased there was a shifting of
the cuts and breakings of the black
surface. In one spot there is forming
cone from which there played nearly
all the time that the spectators watch
ed its movements fountain of fire,
now splitting out the living flaming
lava and again throwing it's fiery
fragments high into the air in con-
tinuous stream. Internationally the foun-
tain would be white and red, as the
lava seemingly was hotter or cooler and
the gases forced the liquid higher in
the air.
During the Senator's visit there was
one moment when the whole mountain
seemed to be convulsed slightly, the
runlblings were louder and from the
great pit came sounds of travail. The
surface of the lake was disturbed until
there appeared an entirely new set of
cracks and around the edges there was
every sign of breaking away of the
cooling surface. From each of the
cracks there was constantly forced
stream of lava which ran around the
lake increasing it's apparent size and
adding to the scene in the bottom of
the great pit an element of intense in
terest.
The activity of the lava indicated
that the cooling of the surface was
RI ha nrlX 10
that within a short time there must
be a falling in of the top thus formed
with the subsequent development of a
lake which will have even greater ex-
tent than the one which was seen in
June or that which made its appear
ance some time two weeks ago. This
will smake the lake something like 500
feet from the deepest point of the
crater, and therefore something about
1000 feet from the rim of the crater
TThis advance of thirty-three per cent
in height has been accomplished by the
crater's bottom without unusual activ-
ity but the prospect seems to be that
there must be some further activity be-
fore the great engine relapses into it's
customary state of inactivity.
The trip of the members of the party
of Senators was made as the guests of
the Hilo committee and right well did
every one enjoy it. The party arrived
in the Volcano house at about 2:30
O'Clock and the time before dinner was
spent in getting ready for action. AS
soon as dinner was discussed, Manager
Waldron of the Volcano house had
horses ready and at once the trip was
undertaken. 1t was hard trip for
some of the visitors had to walk
through the entire route and this kept
back the horseback riders so that it
was near nine o'clock before the side
of the crater was reached. But once
there there was nothing in the way of
comprehensive inspection of the
crater and two hours were spent in this
employment. The rain came down shut
ting out the moonlight, but not con-