362 Volcanic Eruptions on Hawait. 
vated than the black ledge.” In a letter written in the next 
month to a friend from Rev. Mr. Lyman, the crater is described 
as having the whole interior filled, with some parts of the centre 
standing 100 to 150 feet above the black ledge. The large lake 
was still the centre of greatest activity. 
It appears then at the last mentioned date to have been nearly 
in the condition sketched and described by Captain Kelley in 
1839, previous to the eruption of 1840, except that the action had 
not reached the same degree of intensity. 
Through a letter from Lieut. Henry Eld, U.S.N., we learn that 
in the spring of 1849, the bottom of the erater was still as last 
reported, but more raised. Yet instead of an increase of action, 
the crater was unusually quiet. 'The lavas had subsided in the 
great lake and it seemed as if the fires were in process of extinc- 
tion. The action was far less than in 1840, when Lieut. Eld was 
at the crater with the officers of the Exploring Expedition.* 
We conclude at this time with a mention of one or two deduc- 
tions from the facts mentioned. 
1. Frequency of Eruptions —The last three eruptions of Ki- 
lauea have taken place in a period of nineteen years, or with in- 
tervals of eight or nine years. Between the years 1789 and 1823, 
there may have been a season of comparative quiet, as we learn 
from the natives of no great eruption. This evidence, however, 
is by no means decisive. They say, in general terms, that erup- 
tions have taken place during all their kings, and assert that the 
erater has been in action from time immemorial. _ It is quite pos- 
sible that in the above mentioned interval, there were submarine 
eruptions, if not subaérial; and very probably, the latter also may 
have taken place. The statement of the native to Mr. Bishop 
that the lavas, after reaching a certain height, would flow out as 
they had formerly done under the sea, is evidence that they were 
aware of this mode of emptying Kilauea of its lavas. In six 
years after 1840, the lower pit was again filled, and since then 
an eruption has been looked for. 
2. Phases of Volcanic Action.—There can be no truth, at least 
as regards Mount Loa, in the principle reasoned out at length, in 
an able article on volcanoes, by Bischof,+ that the phases of vol- 
canic action depend on water gaining access to the central fires of 
e globe; for the evidence is certainly conclusive that the main 
action of waters is comparatively near the surface.} 
The phases of volcanic action at Kilauea are as follows :— 
_ The centres of action, when most quiet, are reduced to @ 
single one, which occasionally overflows. This overflowing 
ae papers have since reported an eruption, but I have not seen the report con- 
{Natural History of Volcanoes, by G. Bischof Jameson's Edinburgh Jomreel, 
xxvi, 1839; American Journal of Science, xxxvi, 249, 250. f 
e omit here the arguments on this point. 
