i62 Kilanea and Majttia Loa. 



the New Lake, were running over and on about the same level. On the morning of 

 the seventh, between two and three o'clock, the lava of Halemaumau sank ont of 

 sight, taking with it the contents of the shallow New Lake. The preceding activity 



seems to have extended northward, as the sulphur banks near the house 

 1886 had become much hotter, and the hotel bath hou.se over one of the cracks 



was, on the afternoon of March 6th, too hot to be used. At half-past nine 

 of that evening there was a slight earthquake, and it was followed at an interval 

 of fifteen minutes by three other shocks which made sounds "like the fall of a meal- 

 bag on the floor." During the night there were fortj'-one slight earthquakes counted 

 at the hotel, but no damage was done, and thej- were not felt outside the crater region. 

 It was thought at first that the fall of the walls of Halemaumau, that is, the cone sur- 

 rounding it, had caused the vibration, but deep fissures were opened at the same time 

 for a mile along the road to Hilo which certainly could not be attributed to this cause. 

 A notable occurrence was the cessation of the discharge of steam from the cracks in 

 the sulphur bank near the hotel two da^-s after (not at the time of the fall of the lava 

 and walls), but the steam graduallj- returned after two more days. There is no report 

 as to the temperature of the aqueous vapors at the time of return. No outlet, or rather 

 outflow, of the lava was noticed. The main floating island was stranded in the shallow 

 basin, and from photographs taken in 18S7 it would seem to have been a portion of 

 crust, but no sufficient examination was made. 



Mr. J. S. Emerson, of the Government Survey, reached the crater on March 24th 

 and remained until April 14th. All this while, he says "no molten lava was any- 

 where visible in the entire crater. At certain points of easy access a stick could 

 be lighted by thrusting it down a crack so as to bring it in contact with the red-hot 

 rocks beneath ; but in general there was scarcely a place from which I was prevented 

 access on account of the heat." I quote from Dana the abstract of his report given 

 on page loi : "'' 



The total depth lielow the datum at the Volcano House to the bottom of the basin of Hale- 

 ma'auma'u was found to be nine hundred feet, and below the rim of the basin about five hundred 

 and ninety feet. 



On the twenty-ninth of March he descended into the pit: only Rev. E. P. Baker had pre- 

 ceded him. The sides were covered, not by small fragments of lava, or gravel, or scoria, but by 

 great irregular slabs of the smooth-surfaced lava (palioehoe), six to eight or more feet long, five or 

 six feet wide, and about a foot thick, and mostly so placed as to slope downward, though many were 

 tilted in all directions; they looked as if ready to slip to the bottom. But at a depth of about' three 

 hundred and twenty-five feet, or two hundred and sevent>-five feet from the bottom, where the 

 diameter was about six hundred feet, this rough flooring of pahoehoe slabs came abruptl\- to an end, 

 and a nearly circular pit began, which had the form nearly of an inverted cone The lower 



''Characteristics of Volcanoes. [540] 



