282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



described, and still the (,'onclusioii that water is not exhaled by the 

 volcano Kilaiiea remain in doubt.^ 



AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT THE VOLCANO GASES BEFORE THEY REACHED 



THE AIR. 



Be that as it may, in onr efi'ort to obtain samples of the gaseous 

 emanations from Kilauea for further study in this laboratory, it was 

 a matter of very great importance to us to endeavor to establish the 

 facts in the case without the aid of inferences of the character above 

 outlined. We therefore entered on a long study of the habit of the 

 volcano with the purpose of going down on the floor of the crater 

 directly adjacent to the liquid lava, there to collect gases before they 

 had come in contact with the air at all. In the interval between May 

 ], 1912, and January 1 following but two favorable opportunities for 

 such an undertaking occurred, of both of which we endeavored to 

 take advantage. On the first occasion (May 28, 1912) a column of 

 liquid lava had worked its way up through the shattered floor adja- 

 cent to the large active basin and formed an active lava fountain 

 there several feet in diameter. Through its own spattering this 

 fountain quickly built for itself an inclosing wall or dike. When this 

 dike had grown to a completely inclosing dome (pi. 3), the gases dis- 

 charged by the fountain were free to escape only through narrow 

 slits in the dome, and there they could be seen at night burning fit- 

 fully, with a pale blue sheet of flame, thereby demonstrating (1) an 

 excess pressure within, and in consequence (2) that the gases re- 

 leased from the liquid lava fh'st came in contact with the air on 

 emerging from these cracks in the dome. 



We accordingly made the somewhat difficult descent into the crater 

 without mishap, and two crates, each containing 10 glass tubes of 

 one-half liter capacity each, arranged in a continuous series, were 

 then lowered down to us. To one end of this series of tubes a glass 

 pipe line was attached, which led directly into one of the cracks of 

 the dome (see pi. 4) through which the gas was escaping. The 

 last link of the pipe line consisted of an iron tube extending into the 

 dome about 12 inches. This iron pipe was also lined with glass up 

 to the very mouth of the crack, so that, except for the 12 inches of 

 iron pipe within the dome, the gases came in contact with no sub- 

 stance other than cold glass and a few pure rubber connectors, which 

 were made as short as possible by abutting the ends of the adjacent 

 tube sections. Inasmuch as the liquid lava contains nearly 10 per 



iThe chemical and physical tests offered by Briin in support of his conclusions (5) 

 and (6), page 2TS, are also somewhat inconclusive. For example, he tests for 

 chlorine with a silver nitrate solution in an atmosphere containing S, SOo, and SO3, and 

 notes that it immediately becomes clouded, but mentions no test to ascertain whether It 

 was the chloride or the sulphite which was thus precipitated. Similarly, he nowhere 

 offers a chemical analysis of these particular pases which he collected in tubes at 

 Kllauca. hut contents himself with presenting two analyses of other gases pumped from 

 lava fragments reheated iu vacuo some months afterwards. 



