164 Ktlauea and Manna Loa. 



bisin hi 1 ati ev^eu, la-streless surface, free from large blocks and notable fissures, and consisted 

 chiefly of coirse gravel or fragments of lava, but at bottom of smooth black pahoehoe, free from 

 dibris, an i of somewhat triangular shape, with sides of twenty-five feet. From a small fissure issued 

 a faintlj^ bluish vapor. 



In the upper pirt of the basin, ou the northwest side, about three hundred and sixty-four feet 

 above the bottom and two hundred and twenty-five feet below the top, there was a continuous jet of 

 steam from an oval aperture of five to ten feet. This continued to increase, and on the twelfth of 

 April deposits of sulphur were found about it. 



Within the basins of New Lake and Little Beggar there were hillocks of smooth-fissured lava, 



without debris. The huge bulk of the "Floating Island" on measurement proved to be sixty 



feet high and fully a hundred feet in length. The walls of the emptied basin of New Lake were for 

 the most part nearly vertical, and were everywhere covered with a black, vitreous enamel [similar to 

 that covering the interior of the tunnels in the flow of 1881, Little Beggar, etc.]. 



Professor L. L. Van Slyke of Oahu College was at the crater ou Jtily 19th, and 

 fotmd great change in Halemaiiraau. Not only had the lava returned, but the midst 

 of the depression was occupied by a steep cone of loose blocks of lava rising about a 

 hundred and forty feet high, and from four hundred to a thousand feet from the pre- 

 cipitous wall of the pit ou the north side, and this cone was surrounded by a lake of 

 lava covering some five acres. This must have been covered with hardened crust, for 

 Professor Van Slyke ascended the cone and he says : 



I came to the edge of a deep hole or well, of rather irregular outline, four-sided, perhaps 

 thirty or forty feet wide, and from sixty to seventy-five feet long, and not less than a hundred feet 

 deep. The mouth was surrounded by masses of loose rocks, rendering approach to the edge impossible 

 or very dangerous, except at one point : from this point I could see the bottom of the well, and that 

 it was covered with hardened fresh pahoehoe. At one side the liquid lava could be seen as it was 

 puffed out of a small hole every few seconds and thrown up a few feet. The puffing noise accompany- 

 ing the ejection of the lava was quite like that of a railway locomotive, though louder. The aperture 

 through which the lava was thrown out might have been three feet long and two feet wide. Immedi- 

 ately below the point where I was standing there seemed to be a constant and tremendous commotion, 

 attended by a peculiar swashing noise, but I could not lean sufficiently far over with safety to see 

 anything. Fumes of sulphur dioxide were coming up in abundance, but being on the windward 

 side I was not greatly annoyed by them. 



He again went up the cone, but now from the southeastern side: he continues: 



This led to a second well or deep hole, where molten lava was visible. This well was nearly 

 round, with a diameter of perhaps twenty or thirty feet, and a depth of about a hundred feet. At one 

 point the edge could be safely approached ; but as it was on the leeward side the fumes of sulphur 

 dioxide could be endured only for a few seconds at a time. Like the other well, the sides were per- 

 pendicular. At the bottom was a cone having an opening at the top perhaps ten feet across ; and 

 inside liquid lava was boiling with intense violence, every few .seconds throwing up a jet of lava, the 

 spray of which came to the mouth of the well almost into my face. The drops of lava thrown to 

 the mouth of the well had cooled enough to become hardened and black when they reached the 

 level on which I was standing. This place was quite noisy, the noise re.sembling that of violently 

 swashing waters. [542] 



