The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-07-14
A NIGHT OF. FIRE AT
K|LAUEA'S BIG CRATER

fire, and watched the flaming waves
break thunderingly upon the rocky
coast, dashing n spray of molten lava
a hundred feet in the air.
They said 1t was six hundred feet
down to that sea of fire. 1t did not
seem from where / stood, to be one
hundred. And the guide said there
were two cones in the Pit. but could
distinguish no cones 1t seemed to me
one level. lurid hell, only more terrible
where 1t was not glaring with flame.
Yet there must have been differences In
level there because. from one cone So
called. the most active cone from which
the fiery spindrift was flung, there
crept slowly across the floor of the
pit lava flow that took the form of a
mighty scimetar.
LIGHTING UP THE PIT.
To the eastward end of the Pit, as
III sat on the brink. the whole floor
seemed on fire, but beneath the surface.
Through great cracks and crevicee.
spreading in all directions and changing
form constantly, the fires glowed, bale
fully. These cleaning cracks took the
forms of stars and circles and, at inter-
vais, ran zigzag through the dark
mass like flashes of chain lightning
caught and held for moment upon n
summer sky at midnight. At intervals
the cracks open widely. giving deeper
and more terrifying glimpses into the
depths.
Under the more active cone, the one
from which the lava flow came, was
heard the beating of the fiery sea-
and, with every wave that broke upon
the shore that glowed above, the cone
opened more widely, and the bluff upon
which 1 sat trembled. The fire glow
ed. far down, and the liquid mass here
must have been of enormous volume,
Only the beating of a sea, the pulsing
heart of a world, could have shaken
the lofty cliff as those fiery waves did
And the sound of their breaking, sui
len, full of nameless threatening, might
have been the manifestation of the
anger of God.
FIRE NO MAN MADE.
Far away in the northerly corner of
the Pit, there cleaned another point of
this fire that no man had made, but
this was almost overlooked in the light
of the greater manifestation of the ac-
tive cone. That, when the wave came
surging upward and the molten spray
was dashed into the air, lighted up the
Pit so that every rocky outline, was
deflned-and, while 1t showed how deep
the Pit was, still gave more and more
strongly that appalling sense of near
ness. That was the impression that
stayed, and that mastered every other,
the impression of the nearness of the
fire. 1t was the surglng of the molten
sea beneath the active cone that lighted
up the heavens, making a glow in the
clouds that was visible all through the
night. / sat on the Volcano House
porch and watched it, through long
hours, after came back to the hotel.
1t was worth seeing. even at that dis
lance. How much more worth seeing
was it through the hours that 1 sat
on the brink of the Pit. unmindful of
the mist that was almost a rain?
1t has rained all day today, and so
have not gone down to the Pit to see
close to by daylight, as had INTENDED
to do. But 1 have watched it smoking
away in the distance all day long, and
tonight 1t is glowing through the rain.
And it is raining very hard.
DANCING ON THE BRINK.
But 1t has cleared once or twice dur
ing the afternoon and, in these clear
times, strange change had come over
the black surface in the greater crater.
Great volumes of steam could be seen
coming through the cracks in the lava,
far from the Pit. There was line of
these. steaming cracks, stretching clear
across the big caldera to the low place
in the bank that divides Kilauea from
Kilauea-iki. These steam Jets came up
close to the trail that leads to the Pit
across the lava. Another line of
steaming cracks stretched away toward
the summit of Mauna Loa. And still
another line ran out in a southeasterly
direction through what George Lycur-
gus calls "Peles Kitchen" Assuredly
there must be fire under all that mass
of cold lava.
At the same time. following the rain.
the steam jets in the Sulphur Banks.
and all about the Volcano House, have
been doubled in volume.
The Volcano House. tonight, Is almost
as full as 1t can hold. although the re-
sources of Lycurgus are nearly without
limit. The house was full when a gay
party came up from Hilo tonight.
bringing string band. They are dane
ing. tonight, on the brink of an active
volcano. But men have been doing
that since the world began.