180 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
The first view of Kilauea itself is somewhat disappointing to one who 
has recently witnessed the grandeur of the eruption at Savaii, but closer 
acquaintance reveals many features of great interest. Kilauea lies about 
four thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is about twenty miles 
back from the coast. In general structure it is a wide shallow basin over 
three miles in diameter, depressed below the general level of the slopes of 
Mauna Loa. At quite a little distance from the geometric center of the 
lava field which forms the floor of this basin is the active fire-pit, marked 
during the day, as at Savaii, by a cloud of vapor, and at night by a marvelous 
pillar of fire. 
The well-beaten trail to this center of activity leads down along the 
terraced wall of one side to the almost level floor of the main basin. In the 
strongest contrast to Savail, Kilauea’s lava field is remarkably even; 
indeed the best areas of the former are far more broken than the most 
irregular parts of the latter. The surface undulates more or less, it is true, 
while here and there broken masses form hillocks and ridges, but the active 
vent has given forth the molten lava with comparatively little disturbance. 
Since the middle of the nineteenth century enough rock has poured out into 
this wide basin to reduce the height of its vertical walls from more than 
eight hundred feet to about four hundred. 
In December last, Kilauea was unusually active after a period of rela- 
tive quiet. The fire pit is nearly circular in outline and its walls fall in 
two terraces to the small pool of molten lava, about two hundred feet below 
the natural level of the whole basin. Its general structure has varied more 
or less in past decades, as well as its degree of violence, but it has been a 
permanent center of eruptive activity for more than a hundred years, well 
deserving the native name of ‘“ Halemaumau,” the House of Perpetual Fire. 
Here as at Savaii the surface of the pool is in constant commotion, but 
the areas of incandescence are much restricted and run in parallel or forking 
lines. Cakes of congealed lava float between these lines, and when in their 
movements they reach the neighboring areas of greater activity, they are 
redissolved and their fragments are thrown into the air together with Jets 
of more fluid lava. Photographs taken at night exhibit with great dis- 
tinctness the primary and minor areas of greater activity that form a 
network upon the surface of the pool. 
Henry E. CRAMPTON 
