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Kilauea and Manna Loa. 



Early in September, 1908, Halemaiimaii, which now was a single pit on the 

 top, or near it, of the huge dome of lava which forms the floor of Kilauea — about four 

 hundred feet above the general floor of Kilauea in 1864, when the writer first visited 

 and surveyed the crater — had filled with lava to within a convenient point for 

 1908 observation from the highest part of the rim, and not a few visitors made photo- 

 graphs of the pit both by day and night, some of which I am privileged to use 

 for the clearer understanding of the condition. Never before perhaps have so many 



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SlG. 136. HALEMA.UMAU IN AUGUST, I908. PERKINS. 



night scenes been secured, and those I shall present will give, so far as black and 

 white can give, some idea of the wierd appearance of the molten lava as seen through 

 the opening cracks, often enough described, but hard to understand from mere words. 

 The process of filling had been a slow one, for the pit left after the last empty- 

 ing was a very deep one. For a long time there had been no fire (or molten lava) in 

 the visible crater; walls of cracked and irregularly disposed rock supported a black, 



uneven, and much cracked rim, which seemed in places ready to fall, and generally 



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