At Mokuaweoweo. 169 



west from the southern end of the crater of Mokuaweoweo there was a small but deep 

 pit-crater. Having descended the east wall of the central pit of Mokuaweoweo to its 

 bottom, a small cinder cone was found not far from the eastern wall ; and just southwest, 

 a pumice [limu] cone in the midst of an aa flow, the summit of which was very hot and 

 reddish from the action of vapors. In the southwest corner of the pit, there was a cone 

 at F [see map on p. 159], from which vapors were escaping, and south of it, at w, a 

 circular pit between 300 and 400 feet in diameter, by estimate, and 150 to 175 feet deep. 

 The walls of the pit consisted of the edges of layers of basaltic rock, one of which was 

 40 to 50 feet thick, and verticall}' columnar in structure. The floor of the central pit 

 had, as a whole, a slope from the soiithwest to the northeast, confirming the view that 

 the southwest part of the pit had been the seat of greatest activitj-, as it is in Kilauea. 

 Southwest of w, the outer wall of the central pit was cut through from top to bottom 

 by two parallel fissures, which had a S.S.W. direction, and thence pointed nearlj' to- 

 ward the place of chief eruption of 1887. East of m and near the wall in the direc- 

 tion of L, there were great numbers of small fumaroles, from which sulphur vapors 

 were escaping freely, and large deposits of sulphur had been made about them. 

 Near // two dikes, 2 to 25^ feet thick, intersected the walls, crossing one another at a 

 small angle, the rock of which had a feldspathic aspect. 



From a rough measurement, the depth of the crater on the east side was made 

 not over 350 feet. If this small depth is sustained by careful observations, a great 

 change of level had taken place since the survey of Mr. Alexander in 1885. Such a 

 change might have been among the effects of the eruption of February-, 1887. 



President Merritt also visited Kilauea on July 14th. His letter speaks of the 

 walls of "Halema'uma'u" as, in part, wholly obliterated, as represented by Mr. Dodge: 

 it was fifteen to twenty feet high in some places. The nearly circular lake on the 

 west side of the cone [see plan on p. 170], which he calls "Dana Lake", was in ebulli- 

 tion, but not more active than in August, 1887. The enclosing walls of this small lake 

 were ten to fifteen feet high above the liquid lava within, and fifteen to twenty feet 

 above the floor outside. 



Mr. Merritt accompanied the Rev. E. P. Baker, whose notes are of value from 

 his frequent visits to these scenes ; they are published in the Journal containing the 

 preceding account; from that source we gather the following: "A descent was made 

 into the southern crater of Mokuaweoweo — probably the first ever made — and the 

 depth found to be seventy-five feet greater than that of the central crater. A fresh- 

 looking lava stream descended into it down the northern wall, which may have been 

 made in 1887." [547] 



