PICKERING. 
LUNAR AND HAWAIIAN PHYSICAL FEATURES COMPARED. 
1G3 
the photographs shown in Figures 12 and 13 were taken. A. J. S., CXLI, 330, 507 ; 
CXLII, 77; CXLV, 241. 
The next discharge was on July 11, 1894. In August, 1892, the edge of the pit 
of Halemaumau was 282 feet below the level of the Volcano House. The surface of 
the lake was 240 feet below the edge, 522 feet 
in all. (See cut.) In March, 1894, the surface 
of the lake was 75 feet below the Volcano 
House, making a total rise of 447 feet in nine- 
teen months, or about ten inches per day. In 
1892 the lake was in the bottom of the pit. 
In 1894 the pit was filled, and the lake was on the top of a flat hill covering the pit 
and situated 207 feet above its former rim. The pit was filled partly by overflows from 
the lake, and partly by a rise of the whole bottom of the pit. The lake now measured 
800 by 1200 feet. 
On March 21 an area measuring 400 by 800 feet, situated on the northern bank of 
the lake, was suddenly elevated eighty feet above the other banks. The raised area 
was much shattered. It subsequently sank gradually, until on July 11 it again 
reached its former level. On that date the lava in the lake began rapidly to sink, 
and the walls about the lake to crack off and fall into it. The lava sank at the rate 
of twenty feet an hour until eight that evening. From noon till eight there was 
scarcely a moment when the crash of the falling blocks was not heard. A number of 
times a section 200 to 500 feet long, 100 to 200 feet high, and 20 to 30 feet thick 
lava. Such a section would form 
and s 
Meanwl 
nk 
would drop with a tremendous roar into the boiling lava, 
for a time a floating island in the lake, but would subsequently dissol 
The grandeur and magnificence of the scene at night were indescribable, 
the fountains in the lake continued to play as if nothing unusual were happening. Only 
a few slight earthquakes accompanied this discharge. A. J. S., CXLVIII, 338. 
• Since this time for an interval of over twelve years the volcanic forces in Kilauea have 
been practically quiescent. There was a slight display of activity in 1896, and again in 
1897, but the pit remained empty, and no activity whatever has been seen since then, 
except for the gradual and uneventful filling of the pit which seems now to be taking 
ace. No such protracted interval of quiet has been known heretofore, the longest pre- 
period amounting to only a few months 
It is of interest to note that of the fiv 
recorded discharges, four occurred during the rainy months of March and April 
From these descript 
we can obtain an idea of how the lunar 
were 
formed, and can also account for the flat-topped vertical cliffs that we find about 
