The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-12
A NIGHT Of FIRE At
K|LAUEA'S BIG CRATER
Splendid Display Of Convulsive Forces'-Molten
Lava Looks Nearer Than It ls--Life
at the Volcano House.

, the superstition has come down to Us.
preston deeply craven upon humanity
in the formative stage by a world in
the formative stage. We have only be-
gun to outgrow it now that the craters
are closing and the crust OF the earth
cooling. And at Kilauea there is still
enough of an opening into the under
terror to awaken the old Inherited fear
| / do not believe in a literal hell after
looking into the crater-but 1 can
understand how the belief came.
OUT OF THE DARK.
The display in the Pit, as I saw it
Hast night, was terrifying. / came upon
it suddenly, out OF the dark. There
had been a long stage ride from the
Kau side and did not reach the Vol
cano House until near dinner time. Far
out across the black lava that lies like
bed of asphalt that has run and
cooled and cracked, the floor Of the
main crater, a lazy column of smoke
arose and rolled away toward one Of
the spurs of Mauna Loa- 1 do not pro-
pose to describe the great crater, here.
This is but my first impressions. They
will arrange themselves later. when I
have seen the crater oftener and be-
come as much accustomed to it as a
man may.
After dinner, and before it had be-
come quite dark, I was on horseback
and making my way with party down
| the trail 1 shall reserve a description
bof that ride, likewise. As the party
rode across the lava bed, the feet Of
/ the horses crunching the black lava
sand, the night came down, dark and
overcast, although there was a young
moon. 1t was altogether black night
when the corral where the horses were
to be left was reached, and the guides
had lanterns lighted.
| Thence, walking over the lava which
| crunched under foot, it seemed that
was entering world of darkness COM
| plete and utter. There was a dense
| quality of it that deepened the dark of
the night, and which the feeble rays of
the lanterns were utterly unable to
| penetrate. All at once hot wave
swept upward from directly beneath
my feet and, swinging the lantern a
little to one side, 1 saw a wide crack
from which a cloud of vapor was ris-
ing. gustily. l could not put hand upon
the lava here, so hot was it. Then, a
little further on, something white loom
4 rs 40,
saw the twinkle of a light.
THE crateri" I exclaimed meaning
the Pit of Halemaumau.
1T is the lantern of a man ahead"
said Alex the guide, very calmly
But the white placer" I exclaimed
interrogatively.
"A sulphur bank said Alex. See.
You are crossing part of it now.''
WHITE IN THE NIGHT.
And, as a matter of fact. the lava
rock under foot had become white for
a little space. This ended, presently,
and / went on into the darkness for
what SEEM an interminable time. Tine
tai. grew Iougher and rougher. At
last, what looked in the darkness Ike
a cairn of rock appeared on one hand
s.
formless pit On the left hand from
which came dull, red glow.
Still walking on, I stumbled across
a chasm cut upon a kind of platform
of smooth lava bounded by broken rock
masses and found myself looking into
the Pit. 1t seemed a glimpse, literally,
into the mouth of hell. The whole in
terror was alight, a dull radiance that
yet made it possible to see into the
farthest corner of the Pit. Its rocky
sides and awful declivities were shown
with perfect plainness. l could realize
how far he might fall who should
chance to stumble there, and how sure
ly his life would be dashed out in those
Jagged depths.
And yet, paradoxically. with this
realization came that other of the ap-
palling nearnezs of the fire, dominating
il. l stood upon the brink of a sea of
fire, and watched the flaming waves
break thunderingly upon the rocky
coast, dashing a spray of molten lava
hundred feet in the air.
They said il was six hundred feet
down to that sea of fire. 1t did not
seem from where l stood. to be one
-alIt the GUIDE SalQ there
Were two cones in the Pit. but I could
distinguish no cones It seemed to me
one level, lurid hell, only more terrible
where il was not glaring with fame.
Yet there must have been differences in
level there because. from one cone So
called the most active cone from which
the fiery spiudrift was flung, there
crept slowly across the floor of the
pit a lava flow that took the form of a
mighty scimetar.
LIGHTING UP THE PIT.
To the eastward end of the Pit, as
| sat on the brink. the whole floor
seemed on fire, but beneath the surface
Through great cracks and creviceT.
spreading in all directions and changing
form constantly, the fires gIowed. 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 a moment upon a
summer sky AT midnight. At intervals
the cracks open widely. giving deeper
and more terrifying glimpses into the
depths.