The sun., 1919-10-03
NATURES HEART BEATS.
Barred When Mauna Loa's Crater
Pulses Forth Rivers OF Fiery Lava.

As IL this earth In fast thick pants were
breathing.
A mighty fountain momentiy was
forced;
Amid whose swift half intermltted
Huge fragments vaultcd like rebound
ing hail.
-Rubio Khan.
One thing reported by an eyewitness,
one thing observed relating to actions
of the volcanoes OF Mauna Loa, Hawaii,
suggests a similarity to what we COM
monty refer to in our bodies as the
blood pulse, the beating of our hearts
flood.
Years ago we visited TIilo soon after
a river of lava had flowed from Mauna
Loas greatest and highest crater down
toward the sea, seventy-five miles,
stopping just at the edge of Hilo. The
hardened surface of the flow was black,
but in form like frozen swift stream,
here ragged with jutting bits, there
smoothly swelling. In the party were
our Hilo host, an educated white
planter. and one of his native "boys."
The latter, a cheerful young man, in
fact, had accompanied some local In
vestigators who, under awful difficult
ties, reached a point where they could
plainly see the crater whose swift
half intermitted bursts" shot forth
their devastating river of fiery lava
In answering in broken English my
eager questions the native was most
excited when he was seemingly trying
to explain about the pumping like pro-
cess by which the lava was forced from
the great cash in Mauna Loa's side.
Our host, noting our interest and
perplexity. spoke with the boy in Ha-
waiian and presently interpreted that
the lava came out of the crater in
regular beats, and again, after more
talk in native speech, said, Like blood
from a severed artery; it pulsed out"
The native, eagerly interested in the
translation. caught the sense of 1t and
confirmed it with much satisfaction.
"whoof! whoofl Whoof!" he repeated
over and over at slow, regular inter-
vals Then placing a finger on his own
pulse he added impressively, "Ail the
time. All the time"
How much lava with each whoof?"
1 asked. He paused, glanced down at
the harbor where an interisland
steamer lay, and shouted, "Whoof-
ship load. Whoof-ship load"
Later we made the trip. on horse
hack in those days, to smaller crater,
the lowest on Mauna Loa, Kilauea.
This crater is about eight miles
in circumference, its floor of black lava
except that at that time it had two
living lakes. There was a rule against
permitting tourists to climb down the
sides of the crater at night, but high
official of the Hawaiian Government
who was of our party was able to ar
range for our visit at night, and the
native who had visited the great crater
smuggled himself along with us.
In the walk to one of the living lakes
we stumbled and crawled over roughly
upheaved lava like the surface of shore
ice and gingerly stepped over crevices
down which we poked our wooden
stats for the fun of bringing out their
glowing ends for cigar lighters.
We sat on the shore of the lake for
an hour, making non-heat conducting
cushions of our coats. There we saw
the pulse of nature in operation. The
lake would be pitch dark, crusted with
hardened lava as If covered with
rubber blanket. Then with a tearing,
rending sound a flaming crack would
open from shore to shore, lighting the
crater with the glow of the revealed
flowing lava. Another and another
crack would split the surface until the
black lava was broken into cakes, float
ing on their molten sea like ice on
u,atar Thesa cakes would rock then
tip, then plunge down in tumult until
the whole surface became a restless,
seething body Of liquid lava, troubled
by a turmoil of impish waves which
would dance to the shores and there
break. tossing up glittering spray from
which the wind broke off CLASSY wisps.
These wisps the natives called "Pele's
hair" Pele being their goddess of fire.
Then, with solemn grandeur, nature
slowly drew a curtain across her Won
der play: the kissing scarlet movement
ouieted, smoldered into dull red,
smothered into unseeable blackness.
Presently. and again and again, at un-
varying intervals upon the signal of
the ripping crash, the curtain would
withdraw; the roise, the color. the
movement all UNMARRIED as il compelled
and regulated by a mountains heart
beats.