Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1912-10-24
WONDERS Of THE
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Former Baraboo Resident
Remains There Eleven
Months.
ON BRINK OF CRATER
The Wonder of Wonders
Is the Pit ITSELF
Haiemaumau.

1u1S OIlIc6 las ISCcLNOu 4" COPJ Va
the San Jose Mercury and Herald
which gives an account of the stay of
Miss Grace G. Lewis on the Hawaiian
islands. Miss Lewis taught on the
islands, is a daughter of Mrs. Hettie
Lewis and niece of Mrs. w. IL. Newell, !,
Baraboo. She resided here before the
Lewis family moved away, eventually
to California. The account from the
California paper reads as follows:
Grace G.. Lewis, after an absense of
IL months on the Hawaiian Islands,
has returned on the steamer Wilhel-
nina and talks most entertainingly of
her island visit. Shortly before leaving
Hawaii Miss Lewis toured the island
with a p arty by automobile. Leaving
Kealakekau the jolly party toured the
southern part of the island with the
volcano of Kilauea as the objective
point, a trip Of about 500 miles. Re-
turning to Kealakekau the party
started north, completing, in 7OC-
mile run, the circuit of the island and
revisiting the volcano.
"No one," said Miss Lewis, in speak
ing of her visit to the crater, "can
imagine the grandeur of the sight.
The entire island of Hawaii is of
volcanic origin, and in our automobile
run about the island we discovered to
the full the twists and quirks of the
lava streams, which, every now and
again, break forth from the living
volcanoes and overflow the country,
solidifying into cascades like water
falls or flowing rivers or are heaped
into gigantic masses of all sorts and
fantastic shapes.
We reached the volcano in the eve
ming and warmed ourselves before the
big open fire at the Volcano House,
then took horses and rode down Lava
trail, four miles to the crater's edge.
Big tree ferns and tropical plants
brushed our faces as we started, but
after mile or so these became stunt
ed and finally stopped altogether, and
the last two miles or more was only a
barren waste of hardened lava full OF
cracks, assures and inequalities. This
is, however, singularly beautiful In
appearance, much of it being brilliant
bronze, often tipped with red.
Brink of Crater.
"Here, on the brink of the crater,
we sat down to watch the magnificent
play of the fiery pit. The crater is al
most eight miles in circumference,
with an area of something over four
miles, and the glare of flames from
the score" or pit of the volcano is Wis.,
ible against the sky for miles-even
from the other islands. The heat is
intense, and ones face, unless a mask
is worn, is blistered while ones back
freezes from the cold winds that sweep
over the mountain top.
"Some 600 feet above the floor of
the crater we stood, the precipitou:
walls, like an immense bowl, rising in
distinct through the smoke of the pit
on the other side some three or four
miles distant. Relow US, like blact
troubled sea hardened into little
choppy wave crests, lay the floor O
the crater, and here and there, through
assures in the floor, little bursts O
molten lava squirt forth like small
lanterns. These are given names
such as ''The Cook" "The Watch
man." etc.
"But the wonder of wonders is th'
pit f-Halemaumau, THE Hous'
of Everlasting Fire'-the most won
derful, awe-inspiring sight [ thinl
anyone witnessed. Imagine standing
on the brink of the dizzy precipice
overlooking this black, fantastic sci
of hardened lava, with it's center-th
area of city block or more-a seething
roaring caldron of molten lava, ros.
red, so hot that they have never beer
able 30 test its heat! Above this infern
constant clouds of white sulphu
smoke rise, and, looking down int
the depts of the fiery mass, one sees
black mass of lava revolving upon tn
redhot surface until it reaches th
center. Up and down it tosses for