90 



Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



isthmus which separates the two craters. In the midst of this issued the lava stream 

 of 1832 which ran down into both. Its appearance is still fresh, and where it descended 

 into Kilauea over a precipice of 60" and more than two hundred feet high, it has formed 

 a fine las'a-fall perfectly continuous, although for a short distance it is nearly perpen- 

 dicular. It is hollow and of small volume.-" The ascent from this isthmus is not so 



steep on the southern side, and above, 

 the soil is gravelly' and barren, support- 

 ing but few plants. The wall of Kilauea 

 is much cracked and broken on this side 

 and is also much lower. The second lat- 

 eral crater, Keanakakoi on the .southeast 

 is much smaller than Kilauea iki. Its 

 walls are quite perpendicular on the side 

 towards Kilauea, and the depth is greater 

 than that of the main crater. Tlie bottom 

 is gravelly, level, except where a small 

 mound rises near the northern side. 

 Near the edge of Kilauea was a ledge of 

 sandstone much split into vertical par- 

 allel plates and evidently formed by the 

 cementation of the volcanic sand common 

 on tlie banks of this side. There were 

 many curious circular depressions in the 

 hard gravelly soil, about three feet in 

 diameter, and from six to eight inches 

 deep, which I did not at first understand. 

 I .soon found that they were over cracks 

 in the subjacent rock, and the sand, which 

 is quite loose a foot below the surface, 

 had settled into these small fissures, causing the depression in the sandstone above, 

 which is almost as flexible as Itacolumite. There were evidences of severe showers 

 over this plain, as the torrent channels were numerous and deep, and always emptied 

 into the crater. The traces of the ancient adz-making, which gave Keanakakoi (the 



Fig. 61. FKAGMKNT OF THK 1S62 I.AVA-FAI,I,. 



'°Only tile ruins of this fall are to be sten at present ( i<,og). Specimen luintersand earthquakes have perhaps 

 contributed equally to this result, but forty-four years ago it was the most remarkable lava-fall to be sten on the 

 islaiul. The wall behind it is much cracked and broken, but the remaining fragments have still the fresh appear, 

 ance noted in the text. [468] 



