Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1903-10-17
MAUNA LOA FIRE FOUNTAINS
Continued from Page ~

the high attitudes, no man can eat.
Slight stimulant is all that is needed
VI that can be tolerated. some are so
Sick with mountain nausea that eating
Il out of the question. Some in our
party were so sick at the Crater's edge,
that they rolled themselves up in
blankets and said to HI with the vol
CanO, refusing to look upon the play
house of Satan after two days of effort
to reach a point OF view. In our party
which was the first to reach the sum
nit none were taken sick until after
they reached the crater and had dis
mounted. The mountain sickness last
! ed in all cases until lower attitudes
were reached
| The lay OF the land on the summit
may be briefly described as follows:
! \ black lava disc fourteen miles in
diameter forming a plateau crest of q
mountain more than 1900 feet in
height. Near the center an area OF
about four square miles sinks TO u
depth of 1000 feet. This Is the great
crater of MOkuaweUweo. Its walls
stand sheer upright. 1t was from the
lofty COpngs of this coliseum that We
looked uTOn the fireplay last Tuesday
night. In the bed Of this great am
phitheater is a smaller crater of living
Liquid fire covering an area of some
thing like 300 acres. From its surface
the giant geysers of fire shoot upwards
nom 200 TO 900 feet. The play of these
fountains is unintermittent. The
blaze from hundred ton jets, lights the
whole coliseum with a binding glare.
! The eye witness feels like an caves
drOpper in the secrets of the councils
Of Satan. The scene was prepared for
devils. not men. Human beings are
Clendestine pOachers in the precincts
Of lost souls.
From the parapets Of Mauna Loa you
look upon this cauldron. Dykes of
hardened lava are swept away by the
uphurled flood OF fire and the greater
crater bed is Hooded with stream
OF liquid rock stretching more than a
mile across its dark bottom. From the
squirming, flowing mass, every color
OF light and heat is given. Sounds
emerge from the depths as from the
chasms which swallow the souls of the
damned.
have only TO appeal to the strong
men who stood by me to COrrObOrate
this picture, Tears coursed their
cheeks in the sublime light given out
by the unearthly fires. The price and
eXertion to make the journey are for
gotten when the Devils grOttO comes
before the sweep OF the eye.
The return to the Volcano House was
made in II hours. We broke camp at
the edge of the crater at 7 a. III. We'd
nesday and took supper in good sea-
son at the hotel overlooking Kilauea.
Not man in the party would have
been dispossessed OF his experience
for ten times the cost in cash and eX-
ertion and discomfort
The great lateral force Of column
IOf liquid rock over 1900 feet high
may be roughly computed in an in
slant. In 1899 the rise OF the lava in
| MOkuaweOweO resulted in an outbreak
on the HilO side vi the mountain,
forming the crater, called Dewey, far
down the slopes The Kau and Kona
side of the mountain are said to be the
thin frail slopes and most likely to he
suHdered by lateral outbreaks. But
/ only yesterday, observers from Noun
tain View asserted that they saw issues
/ of smoke on the Hilo side above Dewey
crater. A party from HiIo which tried
/ TO reach the crater direct, passed over
this section OF the mountain side last
! Sunday and Monday. They report that
the mountain side at this point was
steaming and hot. Therefore ii is not
AT all improbable that an outbreak has
occurred near the point where the
eruption took place on the mountain
side in 1899.
Our experience on the slopes of the
Long Mountain proves that women