62 Kilaitca and Manna Loa. 



cross braces or supports is difficult: to suppose it blown up by gases, like a soap 

 bubble, predicates a semifluid or elastic continuous crust which did not exist, for the 

 dome was well punctured at its earliest formation and long before it attained its full 

 height, the top was open like the dome of the Roman Pantheon, and from the lateral 

 apertures flowed lava streams. I do not here dispute the fact that enormous masses 

 have been pushed up to so great an height as five hundred feet from the molten or 

 semi-molten pools in Kilauea, — we shall see many later, — but I must call attention to 

 the difficult}' of the problem. 



The dome continued to hold together over the quiet pit, like a mausoleum over 

 a dead volcano, and in April, 1849, there came a change; activity was greatly increased; 

 startling detonations were heard from cones around the dome, and from the opening 

 on the top of this lavas were thrown fifty to sixty feet. Elsewhere in the main crater 

 action was so violent as to frighten travelers from the descent to any part of 

 1849 Kilauea. This excitement did not last long, it suddenly ceased and Hale- 

 maumau was emptied of lava by subterranean discharge, in what direction 

 is unknown, and there followed a period of great quiet. A period of what Mr. Coan 

 aptlv calls "steaming stupefaction" continued through the next two years, but early 

 in 1852 boiling lavas could again be seen through the summit aperture of the dome, 

 now one hundred feet in diameter. In Jul}' Mr. Coan writes^ " that the orifice had 

 doubled its diameter, which constantly increased \>y the fall of fragments into the 

 molten pool one hundred and fifty feet below. In the west wall of the dome was a 

 crack from top to bottom, through which lavas were ejected, while vapors escaped 

 from the perforated dome on all sides. In a later letter Mr. Coan writes^' that at the 

 beginning of 1854 the dome still stood, probably two miles in circumference and three 

 to six hundred feet high. The surface of the main crater floor continued to rise and 

 he estimated it at six hundred feet above the level of 1840. 



We are now approaching a period when Pele's activitj' seems transferred from 

 her everlasting house to her more lofty abode on Manna Loa, and we can conveniently 

 turn to that grand dome rising ten thousand feet above Kilauea. Henceforth we will 

 record both mountains together, not that I believe they have any more connection 

 than Kea and Hualalai, but for convenience of narrative, as the one in action attracts 

 all the attention; but while Kilauea is generally visited whenever Loa is in action, 

 Kilauea is frequentl}' visited and alwa3'S now has some one living on the banks, while 

 Loa is seldom ascended, and in the winter season is difficult and even dangerous to 

 ascend. In the winter or raiu}^ months most of the eruptions of Loa have occurred. 



■•"Amer. Journ. Science, 1853, xv. 63. Ijctter dated July 31, 1S52. 

 ■"Ibid, 1854, xviii, 96. I,ttlei-d:ited Jan. 30, 1S54. [440] 



