GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF HAWAII. 183 



At Kailua tlie traveler may take the steamer retiiriiin<:' to TTonoliiln. havint; 

 practically completed the circuit of the island. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CONDENSED HISTORY OF KILAUEA'S ACTIVITY. 



A Brief Chronology and History of Kilauea from the Earliest Records of 

 Its Eruptions Down to the Present, with Dates and Observations on 

 THE Condition of the Lava in the Crater of Kilauea and the Pit of 

 Halemaumau. 



The following condensed chronology and history of Kilauea and its active 

 pit, Halemaumau, has been drawn from the written testimom^ of a multitude of 

 observers, and is designed to give some important facts, dates and figures, as a 

 matter of reference, that were not suited to the more popular account of this 

 great volcano. 



From the time of the first immigration, under the great Hawaiian \Vakea,i 

 \uitil the last and only historically recorded explosive eruption at the crater in 

 1789, when a portion of Keoua's army was overwhelmed, there appears legendary 

 and traditional evidence to prove that Kilauea was many times in active eruption. 

 . In 1823, when first visited by Europeans, the crater was active and was being 

 emptied by a flow to the south which reached the sea in the district of Kau. 

 The lava dropped from 900 feet - to a point 1,700 feet below Uwekahuna, the 

 fixed datum point on the highest bluff on the west edge of the crater — the point 

 to which the rise and fall in the lava lake is herein referred. 



In 1824 the crater was empty and the bottom left black and smoking. In 

 1825 it had still farther discharged, but by the end of the year was filling again. 

 By 1829 it had filled up 200 feet liigher than when visited by the same observer 

 in 1825. 



1832*. After the last date given (1829) the lava rose above the main crater 

 floor of the earlier period, which was some 300 feet below the floor of the crater at 

 present (1913). During the year (1832) the lava sunk again so that fire was 

 confined in the pit 400 feet down. 



In January (1832) an earthquake rent the walls between Kilauea and 

 Kilauea-iki. Lava issued from the cracks thus opened and i-an into botli craters. 



In 1834 Kilauea had subsided, and was nnu-h llic same as when visiteil by 

 Ellis, who was its first chronicler. 



In 1838 the lava was up to near the present level, and all over an area four 

 square miles in extent. During 1839 the crater continueil very active, and by 

 the following year the lava lake was one hundred feet higher than in 1832. 



In 1840 the crater was vented to the northeast by the Puna How. which 

 reached the ocean. The lava dropped from 650 to 1,030 feet below the datum 

 point. By 1841 Halemaumau was filling again. Kilauea Avas visited during the 



1 140 A. D. - 300 feet below the present floor of the miter. 



* Years marked by eruptions on Mauna Loa. 



