The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-28
POLISH NOBLEMAN'S VISIT
TO kILAUEA Go YEARS AGO


| With the old spelling of "Kirauea,
the Spectator, a Honolulu magazine of
| 1898 conducted by an association of
gentlemen" has the following account
of a visit to the Volcano of Count
| Strzelecki, a polish nobleman:
Ny Dear Sir.
Your kind request to supply the val
| liable publication of the Spectator,
| with an account of my visit to the
Volcano of Kirauea on Hawaii, both
pains and fiatters me: for I regret
| much that my limited stay here. the
| daily current and accommodating objects
| of new and interesting inquiries render
any circumstantial description of it
really impossible to me. A few facts,
| and fewer observations which hasty
and rough sketch brings forth, is all
l am able for the moment to supply
you with. I cannot even ATTEMPT to
give you the slightest idea of the I'M
pTessions which the awful sublimity
o. the volcano produced upon my
imagination; that part of our being
does not yield as easily as memory-it
| does not reproduce sensations; the
rapture-the enthusiasm once gone by,
Is lost forever
What 1 remember, and long shall
recollect, as showing the mighty inf1u-
, ence of mighty objects upon me. are
the difficulties L had to struggle with,
before my eye could be torn away
from the idle. vacant but ecstatic
gazing with which regarded the great
Whole, down to the analytical part of
the wondrous and unparalleled scene
before me- I say unparalleled, because
having visited most of the European
and American VOLCANOES. I find the
greatest of them inferior to Kirauea
crater in intensity, grandeur, and ex-
tent or area.
The abrupt and precipitous cliff
which forms the y. n. E. wall of the
crater,-found. after my repeated OBJ
servations, TO be elevated 4104 feet
above the level of the sea-overhangs
an area of 3,15O00o square yards of
haIT-cooled scoria sunk to the depth
OF 500 yards. and containing more than
Sz6o 00 square yards of convulsed tor
rents OF earths in igneous fusion, and
gaseous fluids constantly effervescing
-bolllng-sp outing-rolling in all di-
fectlons like waves of a disturbed sea,
violently beating the edge of the call
dFons like an Infatuated surf and like
surf spreading all around its spray in
the forn of capillary glass which fills
the ar and adheres in flaky and
pendulous form to the distorted and
broken masses of the lava all around;
hVe caldrons each of about ZOO square
yards, almost at the level of the great
area, and containing only the
twelfth part of the red liquid
the sixth caldron is encircled
by wall of accumulated scoria of fifty
yards high. forming the S. S. w. point
the Hale mau mau of the natives to
which the bones of the former high
chiefs We're consigned-the sacrifices to
the goddess Pele offered-the abyss of
abysses. the caldron OF caldrons-ex-
hibiting the most frightful area of
about 100000 square yards, bubbling
red hot lava-changing necessarily its
level-sometimes rolling the long curl
ed waves with broken masses of cooled
crust TO one side of the horrible labor
atory-son1etirnes, as if they had made
a mistake, turning them back with
spcuting fury. and a subterraneous,
terrific noise of a sound more internal
than earthly; around are blocks of
lava, scoria. slags of every description
and combination, here elevated by the
endless number Of superimposed lay
ers. in perpendicular walls OF 1000 feet
high-tnere torn asunder. dispersed,
cracked, or remoulded-everywh
terror, convulsion-rfighty. engine of
nature-and nothingness of man!
No where does the solution of the
great problem of volcanic fires by Sir