The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-10
UNCLE SAM IN HAWAII-By Frank C. Carpenter

1 at the top of Mama Loa and another res- | eryation down the sides of the mountains | to- include Kilauea. Kilauea is only 4O00 | feet above the sea, and 1t is situated on a belt road around the island and can be
 reached by automobiles.
 A Lake of Fire and Birthstone
 Think of going by automobile right down ! to the shore of a lake of fire and brim- stone. That is what we have in Kilauea,
 and all around in tho country about are | picturesque pit craters. banks of sulphur and lava trees, tree ferns and forests of | many varieties. The government will es- | tablsh a volcano and earthquake obser- vatory there and it will preserve the | scientific aspects of these wonderful nat
 ural features from vandals and business | intrusion.
 1 The crater of Kilauea is eight miles in | circumference and the pit of blazing fire | Is 200O feet in diameter and it lies perhaps | 1000 feet below the mouth of the crater. | It is usually safe, but it has had some migty eruptions, when stones and volcanic ashes have been spread over the country | for miles around. In recent times the lava is supposed to have gone out undG | the earth to the sea, the floor of the crater rising and sinking with it's discharge. | The crater in the other reservation on the top of Maona Loa measures about nine and one-half miles in circumference. It is a pit crater, with walls almost yerti- cal and about 500 feet deep. When the mountain goes into eruption it spouts forth columns of flames and clouds of vapor and the lava runs in streams down the mountains. The last great eruption was in 1907 and was attended by an earth quake The one in 1868 raised huge sea
 waves 40 feet high, which broke on the shore and destroyed many villages.
 Our Bird Reservation in Mid-Ocean Uncle Sans bird preservation. which has
 been set aside by the government and
 placed under the biological survey of the department of agriculture. is another nat
 ural wonder It is a great ocean park covering hundreds of miles. in which are
 many small islands. rocks and reefs.
 They belong to the Hawaiian group. but
 they stretch far off to the westward in
 the direction of Japan
 These islands have no human life upon them, but they contain a population of sea birds which in variety and extent is unequaled in any otker part of the earth. There are tens of thousands of birds which make their homes on thise lonely islands. They come there to breed and at times the islands are covered with nests. The ground is one mass of eggs and in the past these have been gathered in wheelbarrows and carts and carried away by the boatload.
 The birds feed on the fish which swarm about the islands and upon other kinds
 of sea life which live on the reefs and along the shores There are some plants,
 and just now the reservation is suffering
 from an invasion of rabbits, which feed on the plants and which. If not dealt with, may destroy the bird life.
 Moreover. the Japanese have been raid
 ing the islands in order to kill the alba trosses and cure their skins for millinery purposes. The group should be watched by our revenue cutters and the reserva- ticn should have permanent officials there to care for It.
 Preparing for Panama
 Uncle Sam is doing much to prepare the islands for the increased traffic which will come with the Panama canal. The ports have been cleaned and the chief harboss