Puna Pit Crafets. 97 



here the first cooling part is not fully cr3^stalline, and if the mother liquor is withdrawn 

 the rough already solidified part remains as aa. 



Tuesday I went with my boy loane to explore the woods. As I followed a path 

 made by the pulu pickers through the dense forest, I came upon a large hole on the 

 edge of the path which proved to be the entrance to a cave of great depth. The path 

 had been turned aside to avoid it, and in the dark it would be very dangerous. Such 

 holes are common in this part of Puna, and natives occasional!}^ disappear mysteri- 

 ousl}^ Brushing through the bushes I came to a precipice forming the edge of a crater 

 nearly three-quarters of a mile in diameter and seven hundred feet deep. The sides 

 were quite perpendicular, and in most places impassable. The bottom was level and 

 gravell}', with a thin growth of ohia, and at the western end, directly under the wall, 

 was a much deeper pit, indeed the deepest I had seen on Hawaii. Beyond this was a 

 cone of some size, near which the eruption of 1840 reached the surface, first passing 

 under the cone (see Fig. 64). Half a mile be3^ond this is another pit crater, smaller, 

 and covered on the bottom with black lava. Following the line down in a southeast- 

 erly direction, I came to the steam cracks, which extend for several hundred feet, and 

 since tradition existed have furnished the natives of the neighborhood with the means 

 of cooking. The pahoehoe has been decomposed into a soft red muddy soil, covered 

 with a hard crust, which may be raised in slabs. Under these are most beautiful 

 crystals of sulphur in clusters, but too fragile to be removed. 



Beyond these cracks was a much larger crater, elliptical, with a major axis a 

 mile long and a depth of nearly five hundred feet. The perpendicular walls presented 

 basaltic columns in various places, and at the west end were rent asunder affording an 

 easy descent to the bottom, which was gravelly, level, and free from cracks or holes. 

 The walls of all the craters that I visited were compact graj' clinkstone in deep strata 

 like the walls of Kilauea, and no recent lava was visible. Several dykes were seen at 

 right angles to a line from Kilauea to Kapoho.'' The line of these cones and craters 

 may be seen on the map, but the principal group at Kapoho, near the coast, deserves 

 more notice. These cones and craters seem to extend in several nearly parallel lines 

 toward the mountain. One very interesting group much broken down, and apparently 

 among the oldest, contains in its midst the beautiful Green Lake (Fig. 66). This 

 occiipies a deep crater but the water is of constant level, with no outlet and no apparent 



''These craters are now (1909) easily accessible by a good trail from the Volcano House. Many of these pit 

 craters have the -walls more or less covered with ferns, and one had the name Halema'uma'u ( House of fern). From 

 this perhaps arose the pedantic mistake of calling the Halemaumau (House that endures) of Kilauea by this other 

 very inappropriate name. Pele had her Halemaumau, always there, however the form might change, and on her ac- 

 customed path to the sea she had her temporary lodging, a mere fern-covered house (Halema'uma'u)- Father Coan, 

 whose critical knowledge of the Hawaiian language was certainly as great as that of any one now living, recognized 

 only Halemaumau in Kilauea, but more than one Halema'uma'u in Puna. 



Memoirs B. P. B. Musecm, Vol. II, No. 4.-7. L475 J 



