Visit oj the Challenger Expedition. 



129 



saw lava rushing swiftly at a depth of not more than ten feet below where we stood, and in the direc- 

 tion of the hotel. Proceeding to a point of observation marked X we had a fair view of all the 

 craters. The small one marked C was playing with most force spurting its lava in spray ten to twenty 

 feet above its banks. Halemaumau was almost as lively, and the main crater Kilauea was boiling 

 at the base of its cliffs on all sides with vigor. It was about eleven o'clock when we arrived at X. 

 The little crater D was then without signs of fire. After we had been standing about half an hour, 

 this little basin showed fire, heaving and then bursting its scum of gray lava and boiling fiercely. 

 About the same time the lava in the great crater Kilauea was rising fast. Presently it gushed up 

 and with a surge toward the northeast side, appeared to be rushing toward a vent and in a few 

 minutes it subsided to its first level, and all the craters seemed in about an equal state of activity. 



None of them were near full as we are told 

 they sometimes are. The lava in Halemau- 

 mau was about twenty feet below the lava 

 floor right about it ; crater C about the same; 

 D not more than ten to twelve feet, and 

 Kilauea perhaps from thirty to forty or fifty 

 feet. As soon as the great gush from Kilauea 

 found vent we anticipated a good flow of lava 

 on the great lava sink between these craters 

 and the hotel. We returned to dinner at two 

 o'clock via the cave of stalactites on the 

 northeast terrace of the great sink. When we 

 came out from dinner the anticipated lava 

 flow had already submerged an acre or two 

 of the sink on the route of our morning walk 

 and was creeping over the great sink in four 

 different places. 





O.-d 



A'-feEi 



r'^!^-^ 



August 7, iS 



^/J- 



Fig. 75. CR.\TER IN FEBRU.\RV, 1875. 



C.E. Oilman. —Two 

 severe earthquake shocks were felt here to- 

 day: one at 4:30 p.m., and one at 6:45 p.m. 

 Motion north to south. 

 August 75, i8j^. Challenger Expedition. — A few of our party visited the crater this even- 

 ing and found both Kilauea and Halemaumau more than usually active. We left Volcano House 

 at 5 P.M., thus arriving at the scene of action a few minutes before sunset. By this means we got a 

 good idea of the whole volcano by daylight and a grand view of the furnaces by night. Kilauea had 

 five jets playing, Halemaumau having the same number but on a much finer scale. Even as we sat 

 there gazing down, Halemaumau rose in a few minutes to within a few feet of the top of its banks, 

 and I have no doubt that an overflow took place at some point that was hidden from us. The lake 

 then subsided to its former level. Between these two craters, high up on the dividing bank of hard 

 lava, a small cone was blowing every two or three minutes, the jets reaching an altitude of twenty 

 or forty feet. — Spectroscopic observations of the furnaces with a small direct vision spectroscope gave 

 a continuous spectrum, the red showing brightest, an occasional flare in the green Magnetic ob- 

 servations were made with the dip needle in front of hotel, then the dip circle was carried down to 

 the first plateau and a difference of two degrees in reading was found, thus indicating the powerful 

 influence of the iron in the crater. Photographs were taken of the whole crater, of the craters of 

 Kilauea and Halemaumau, and of the lava cascades. — Mauna Eoa is quiet now."'- 



Augusl 21, iSj§. J. W. Oilman. — A faint light was seen from here at 9: 15 p.m. on Mauna Loa. 



'°-Tlie photographs of the whole crater and of the ca.scades are given in the second part of the first vohmie of 

 the Narrative of the Expedition, but the two views of the smaller craters mentioned do not appear. 



Memoirs B. P. B. Museum, Vol. II. No. 4. — 9. L5*-'7j 



