OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 409 



surrounding scorije, in two beautifully curved streams." At the same time a whole lake 

 opened over an extent two miles in circumference. 



In December of the same year Rev. A. Bishop found the crater much fuller than when he 

 visited it with Mr. Ellis in 1823. There were many cones from fifty to one hundred feet 

 high on a surface about four hundred feet higher than the bottom of the crater two 

 years before. There were lakes boiling actively, and " every now and then sending forth a 

 gust of vapor and smoke with great noise. 1 The natives remarked that after rising a little 

 higher the lava will discharge itself, as formerly, towards the sea, through some aperture 

 underground." 



In the early part of October 1829, the Rev. C. S. Stewart again visited the crater. 



1829 

 He found the lower pit filled up more than two hundred feet ; many of the cones 



had disappeared, and there was much more fire at the northern end. He thus describes two 

 cones which he examined. " They were in the neighborhood of each other — each about 

 twenty feet in height, not more than sixty in circumference at the base, and tapering almost 

 to a point at the top — being in fact two immense hollow columns formed by successive 

 slight overflowings of lava, cooling as it rolled down, into irregular flutings, ornamented 

 with rude drops and pendants, and long tapering stalactites. Though the ragings beneath 

 must have been intense, from the tremendous roar within, the irresistible force and deafen- 

 ing hiss with which the steam rushed from every opening, and from the flames which flashed 

 up, followed by lava white with an intensity of heat, still the incrustation of scorias im 

 mediately around seemed firm, and was less hot, than in many other places ; admitting not 

 only of our coming close to the sides of the cone, but also of clambering some feet up them, 

 till we could run our canes into the orifices at the top, and withdraw, with their burning 

 ends, red-hot lava, on which we readily made impressions. Pele did not seem well pleased 

 with this familiarity, however ; even the slightest touch with our sticks against the molten 

 lava, produced an increased rush and roar from below, with an angry spitting of the fiery 

 matter high in the air around us." 2 



Four years after, an eruption took place simultaneously with one from the summit 

 of Mauna Loa. Unfortunately we have no account from any eye-witness. In 

 September 1832, the Rev. J. Goodrich visited Kilauea, and describes the appearance of the 

 emptied crater. " The lavas had previously risen fifty feet above the black ledge, but were 

 now more than four hundred feet below this level, and the action seemed confined to the 

 Halemauinau at the south end. In January an earthquake had rent in twain the Avail 

 between Kilauea and Poli-o-Keawe. 3 the large crater on the east, producing seams from a few 

 inches to several yards in width, from which the region between the two craters was deluged 

 with lava." 4 



This outbreak on the wall was very remarkable, rising as it did in a strip of land four 

 hundred yards wide bounded on either side by precipices between two and three hundred 

 feet high. Before this time, Poli-o-Keawe had long been free from volcanic action, and its 

 sides were wooded to the bottom. The stream issued from several rents south of the centre 

 of the isthmus and above the lowest part, flowed toward the north a few yards to the 

 lowest part, and then ran east and west into the two craters in a stream a hundred feet wide 

 but quite shallow ; indeed the quantity of lava was so small, that its eruption is hardly more 



1 Missionary Herald, vol. xxiii., p. 53. 3 The same called by Ellis Kilauea-iki. 



2 A Visit to the South Seas, vol. ii., p. 93. 4 Silliman's Journal, [n. S.] vol. xxv., p. 199. 



MEMOIRS B08T. SOC. SAT. HIST. Vol. I. Pt. 3. 104 



