84 



Kilaiica and Maiiiia Loa. 



nails in niv shoes scraped npon it. When liard it was often iridescent, like some 

 anthracite coal, and so closely resembling this mineral that the difference wonld hardly 

 be detecfled on a cursory examination. The fresh lava closely resembled that from 

 Manna Loa in the flow of 1859. Three-quarters of a mile over this uneven lava, and 

 we came to a wall of fragments of everj- size of compact light-colored lava, verv solid 

 and h e a V \' and 

 containing man}- 

 small grains of 

 olivine quite differ- 

 ent in appearance 

 as well as size 

 from that in the 

 lava of 1840; and 

 this wall, which is 

 roughly concen- 

 tric with the outer 

 wall of Kilauea, is 

 said by the natives 

 to rise and fall and 

 sometimes disap- 

 pear. The stones 

 so closely matched 

 the outer walls, 

 that I had no doubt 

 that they had 

 fallen from these 

 walls, loosened by 

 some of the many 

 slight earthquakes 



and floated out to its present position. An unpracflised eye could see no marks of fire 

 on the rough granite-like masses. All over the floor caves, cracks and ridges make 

 the surface very uneven, and after walking two miles we came to several large cracks 

 of great depth, but not more than a yard wide, and then a wall enclosing an amphi- 

 theatre down which we climbed on the loose slabs of lava. 



The whole bottom of the crater is above what Prof. Dana describes as the Black 

 Ledge, and although no fire is visible over the northern and eastern portions, steam 



constantly rises from many cracks, and the caves are often uncomfortably warm. 



[462] 



FIG. 57. PORTION OF THK Fl.OOR COVKRKIl WITH SPATTER. 



