Bloiv-hole on Htialalai. 



II 



No signs of steam or sulphurous fumes were visible, but on the edge of one of 

 the deepest craters, on the wall which separated it from another less than two hundred 

 feet distant, was a mound of scoriae some fifty feet high, composed of drops and slightly 

 agglutinated fragments of all sizes and colors, black, blue, orange, red, golden, appar- 

 ently- ejected in a viscid state, and in the centre of this a blow-hole about twent3'-five 

 feet in diameter, and as nearlj' as we could judge by throwing stones, eighteen hundred 

 feet deep to a ledge, to one side of which we covxld see a deeper, rather smaller hole. 



FIG, 



HI.OW-HOLE ON HUAI.AI.AI. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKP;N IN 1 SSg. 



I was obliged to lie flat on the edge to examine it, the scoriae were so loose, and the 

 whole cone jarred as we climbed over it." The inside of the blow-hole was of a brown 

 color, smooth as if turned, and grooved horizontall}-. No vertical striae could be dis- 

 tinguished, but as these horizontal grooves seem to correspond to the strata of the 

 adjoining crater walls, I suppose that the projeAing ridges mark the more solid sub- 

 stance of these strata which would be in their centre, while the scoriae which separate 

 the beds to some extent, would permit the deeper action of the vapors that have 

 formed the hole. The wearing force must have been chemical rather than mechanical, 

 as the wall of the crater adjoining, which is not more than twentj'-five or thirty feet 



'When I again visited this blow-hole twcnt)--tive years later the top hail fallen in, unich reducing the height. 

 This was a favorite depository among the ancient natives for foreskins, umbilical cords, etc., and tradition declares that 

 not a few of the idols doomed to destruction were cast into this almost sacred hole as preferable to the usual cremation. 



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