356 Volcanic Eruptions on Hawaii 
The only published accounts of the crater subsequent to that 
just mentioned by Mr. Goodrich, and previous to this ernption, 
are those of Mr. Douglass,* Captain E. G. Kelley, (from  state- 
ments by Captains Chase and Parker, )f Count Strzelecki,t and 
mae John Shepherd. 
a. Mr. Douglass was at Kilauea in January, 1834. ‘The pit, 
by his meastrements was one thousand feet deep, and the black 
ledge and lower pit te to have been in the same condition as 
when seen by “Me. Bishop. ‘There was a lake of boiling lava in 
the north end, three seis and nineteen yards in diameter, be- 
sides the large one in the south end. The movement of the lavas 
to the southward (a consequence of the ebullition) was estimated 
to have a velocity of three andone-fourth miles per hour. 
6. Captains Chase and Parker visited the crater in 1838, four 
years after Mr. Douglas. At that time, as the sketch made by 
them on the spot indicates, the lavas had so increased that the 
lower pit was almost obliterated, the bottom having risen nearly 
to a level with the biack ledge. This will be understood from 
the figure on page 352: all the bottom pit between pm and p’n’ 
had become filled up, by the successive overflowings, to within 
forty feet of the top, and over the four square miles of area, the 
res were in great activity. There were six boiling lakes of lava, 
and twenty-six cones from twenty to sixty feet high, eight of 
which were throwing out cinders and red hot lava. Standing 
by the side of one of these lakes, they looked down more: than 
three hundred feet upon its agitated surface: “after a few min- 
utes the see sauBare ceased, and the whole surface of the lake 
lack mass of scoria; but the pause was only 
to renew its skdrinns for while they were gazing at the change, 
suddenly the entire crust which had been formed commen 
eracking, and the burning lava soon rolled across the lake, heaving 
the coating on its surface like cakes of ice upon the ocean surge. 
Not far from the centre of the lake was an island which the lava 
was never seen to overflow.” ‘These interesting facts gomee 
several points of special importance in volcanoes, viz. (1) The: 
pidity with which lava cools; (2) The freqrent rise of vases 
ture that takes place even iu “boiling me arising from a new 
gushing from the source below; (3) th e formation of cliukers, 
well compared to the breaking up of ice. From the account of 
Captain Kelley, it appears that the ite bottom of the crater 
was not in fusion. On the contrary, the greater part was black 
lava, over which they travelled to the briuk of some of the pools; 
eee ee ee mera Bl 
* Jour. of the Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. iv 
American Journal of stony ze 117; ; with a tig of the crater, whi 
had that the ob'iteration of the lower pit was nearly ; 
A bs ames re Sec: of Lee. Shep- 
A eee ere ideas ae Bice Pe sited “captain 
~ 
