408 W. T. BRIGHAM ON THE VOLCANIC PHENOMENA 



The next year, July 28th, 1825, Kilauea was visited by the Rev. C. S. Stewart, 

 who describes its appearance as follows : a — 

 "About midway from the top a ledge of lava, in some places only a few feet, in others 

 many rods wide, extends entirely round, at least so far as an examination has been made, 

 forming a kind of gallery to which you can descend in two or three places, and walk as far 

 as the smoke settling at the south end will permit. . . . The gulf below contains probably 

 not less than sixty, — fifty-six have been counted, — smaller conical craters, many of which 

 are in constant action. The tops and sides of two or three of these are covered with sulphur 

 of mingled shades of yellow and green. With this exception, the ledge and every thing be- 

 low it are of a dismal black. The upper cliffs on the northern and western sides are perfectly 

 perpendicular, and of a red color, everywhere exhibiting the seared marks of former power- 

 ful ignition. Those on the eastern side are less precipitous, and consist of entire banks of 

 sulphur of a delicate and beautiful yellow. The south end is wholly obscured by smoke 

 which fills that part of the crater and spreads widely over the surrounding horizon. . . . 

 Two or thuee of the small craters nearest to us were in full action, every moment casting 

 out stones, ashes, and lava, with heavy detonations, while the irritated flames accompanying 

 them glared widely over the surrounding obscurity. . . . The great seat of action, however, 

 seemed to be at the south-western end. . . . Rivers of fire were seen rolling in splendid 

 corruscations among the laboring craters, and on one side a whole lake whose surface 

 constantly flashed and sparkled with the agitation of contending currents. ... At an 

 inconsiderable distance from us was one of the largest of the conical craters whose laborious 

 action had so impressed us during the night. On reaching its base, we judged it to be one 

 hundred and fifty feet high ■ — a huge, irregularly shapen, inverted funnel of lava, covered 

 with clefts, orifices, and tunnels, from which bodies of steam escaped with deafening ex- 

 plosion, while pale flames, ashes, stones, and lava were propelled with equal force and noise 

 from its ragged and yawning mouth. . . . Leaving the sulphur banks on the eastern side 

 behind us, we directed our course along the northern part to the western cliffs. As we 

 advanced, these became more and more perpendicular, till they presented nothing but the 

 bare and upright face of an immense wall, from eight to ten hundred feet high, on whose 

 surface huge stones and rocks hung — apparently so loosely as to threaten falling, at the 

 agitation of a breath. In many places a white curling vapor issued from the sides and 

 summit of the precipice ; and in two or three places streams of clay colored lava, like small 

 waterfalls, extending almost from the top to the bottom, had cooled evidently at a very 

 recent period." 



Lieutenant Maiden, who accompanied Mr. Stewart, made a sketch of the crater, 2 and 

 calculated the height of the upper cliff from the black ledge, at nine hundred feet, making 

 the whole depth of the crater fifteen hundred feet ; and the circumference of the crater at 

 its bottom, from five to seven miles, and at its top from eight to ten miles. On the even- 

 ing of the 29th, after terrific noises and tremblings of the ground, " a dense column of heavy 

 black smoke was seen rising from the crater directly in front of us — the subterranean 

 struggle ceased — and immediately after, flames burst from a large cone, near which we had 

 been in the morning, and which then appeared to have been long inactive. Red-hot stones, 

 cinders, and ashes, were also propelled to a great height with immense violence ; and shortly 

 after the molten lava came boiling up, and flowed down the sides of the cone, and over the 



l Journal by C. S. Stewart, p. 374. 2 See the plan of Kilauea, Plate XV. 



