On the Summit of Manna Loa. 



203 



shown in Mr. Baldwin's picture. The party left the crater the next morning at 7 

 o'clock, and by evening were at the Volcano House. One of the party declares that 

 the roar of the "fare geysers sounded like the smashing of heavy seas against the rocks. 



The spouting columns of white-hot lava arose to heights of several hundred feet, 



and would fall back as blackened boulders 

 and huge chunks of congealed cinder." 



A party from Napoopoo M'cre caught 

 in a severe hailstorm and lost their way, 

 reaching the summit after great hard- 

 ships. "The sight was simply indescrib- 

 able. Columns of fire from forty to a 

 hundred feet were playing, now here, now 

 there. We counted about thirty foun- 

 tains [meaning such fountains as are 

 common in Kilauea's pools]: one fully 

 formed cone nearly seventj'-five feet high 

 in about the centre of the crater, and one 

 forming a little to the southwest of it. 

 There was smoke or steam everywhere 

 in the crater, but the principal eruption 

 was in a line running through the centre 

 of the crater of Mokuaweoweo from the 

 southeast to northwest." 



Several of the party state that the 

 entire crater floor was covered with 

 molten lava, but others limit the lava to 

 the stream already mentioned in the 

 northern half of the crater. This party 

 from Napoopoo had a bad time coming up, 

 and had left some of their number in camp at the 11,000 feet level; after spending two 

 hours and a half on the summit they returned rapidl}- to this camp. In the words of one 

 of the party: "On arrival one of the guides who had remained with the sick one at camp 

 had coffee ready for us, aud horses saddled and packed ; no time was lost, as we wished 

 to make the edge of the woods before dark. We left the 11,000 level at 11:30 a.m. 

 and proceeded downward at a brisk walk, the animals feeliug very cold and eager to 

 walk. Hardly had we descended a thousand feet when the sky darkened and a most 



terrific snow and electrical storm was upon us. The hail was so pelting and heavy 



[581] 



Fig. 127. MR. RIDGEWAY'S PLAN OF THE ERUPTION. 



