The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-08-21
WOODWORKING PROCESSES \
OF NATURE AT KILAUI

process, so that the level of the i'd
at these points is actually higher
the wall than il is nearer the cent
of the pit.
On Thursday night the central lai
fed by the upward gushing fountaill
from the center of the earth had bull
itself up fully fifteen feet above thu
Immediately surrounding level. sold
Faithful sometimes in one great gey.
ser, sometimes dividing itself up into
two or three, seemed more active than
ever. In two or three other places in
this lake there seemed TO be a rising
flood of molten lava. The surface of
the lake was in constant motion as the
rising lava spread. The surface, black
ening into thin cakes, was constantly
broken up, the blackened cakes being
hurled and swirled here and there, suck
ed down into the livid depths to be
remelted in the fervent heat. ALI ar
once, about clock there were indi-
cations that this central lake would
overflow its .selfraised walls. There
was point on its eastern side wheret
it seemed likely to give way. This was
noticed by many of the half hundred
fascinated watchers at the shelter house
on the northern edge of the pit. Thosv
who saw it called the attention of those
company was watching intently this
point. AT last the forces inside proved
too strong. The upper edge of the re-
tanning wall gave way. 1t was like
a crevasse in dyke Soon a foc1tr21
liquid fire was pouring out in a ms
cent cascade fully twenty feet
Presently the whole surface of this
fest lake was visibly in motion I'd
this crevasse. The blackened srt
broke up into great irregularly sh
cakes which were carried over byI
cascade. breaking into smaller pil
they did so. From the foot of the
cade the fiery flood flowed in a W
defined stream for several hundred ft
until it lost itself as stream in spreal
ing out over the surface of that portia
of the pit not included in the centel
of activity. Within an hour such val
quantities of molten lava had flowed on
in this cascade that fully half'of TIL
entire surface of the pit was aglow.
From the north side of the pit wheteY
the shelter house is this cascade could3
be seen flowing away. Even from this
point of view it was magnificent. But
large number of the throng of spec
tators wanted another view, and to get
it, led by the guide, went nearly a
third of the way around, the edge OF
the pit to the easterly side. There they
faced the cascade. 1t was an enthraI-
ling sight. A cascade of fire twenty
feet wide at the very least, dropping
down in a beautiful curve and flowing
away in a river aglow.
There are other phenomena which
| this wonder is constantly presenting and
constantly changing, Some of them are
great squirting fountains rising in cor
hill Il fo1I
, graceful cascade of glowing sparks.
| These are probably formed by an escape
! of gas. Then there is the swirl, ana
! the swish, and the roar, of this liquid
i element like the swirl, and the swish,
and the roar of the ocean. 1t is the
the phenomena of water Transformed
into the phenomena of fire.
1t is impossible to more than suggest
: the impressiveness of the scene. The
difficulty is not so much in describing
each feature of the spectacle separately,
!. and in detail. But in viewing it the
!. details are all fused into one magnif-
cent whole. 1t is presented to the eye
in its entirety.
Or, if one desires to study it in dc1
tail, the whole great flood of the crater
is there for demonstration and illus
tration. One has but to look about
ONtE the AIRES VI pduOeHOt,
!, all of which have poured out within
the memory of men now living, to see
in rigid waves, and streams, and cas-.
cades, and fountains, what has resulted
from the very processes which are gois
r ing on now before his eyes in Halema,
1 mau. The old and the new reciprocaliS
illustrate each other. 1t is double
spectacle--the plastic and the rigid
: 1t is a relief to get back from these
S scenes of Titanic forces, these worio.
D forging processes of Nature, to the COM
t fort and ease of the Volcano House.
g Though these are rather strenuous days
Y for mine host Demosthenes Lycurgus,
/ with their constantly arriving and con-
: stantly departing guests, the unrest he
v suffers in not communicated to anybody
t else. He may often be at his wit s
n end to provide accommodations for an
+ unusual tide of visitors. but he does 1t,
$ and does it so that there is no marring
S of the pleasure of stay. long or short,
!, at this gateway of Wonderland A visit
S to the Volcano and the Volcano House
n cannot be surpassed