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Oft the Recent Condition of Kilauea. 75 



Art, XII. — On the Recent Co^iditioti of Kilauea; by Rev. 

 C. S. Lyman, including a letter from Rev. T. Coan, Missionary 



at Hilo, Hawaii. 



In an article on "Volcanic Eruptions on Hawaii," published in 

 the ninth volume of this Journal, (May, 1S50,) the geologist of 

 the U. S. Exploring Expedition* has given a description oi the 

 topography of this remarkable volcano, together with some no- 

 tices of its various eruptions since it began to be visited by for- 

 eigners. To this article the reader is referred for a general de- 

 scription of the situation and character of the crater of Kilauea, " 

 illustrated by a plan and section. 

 _ The writer of these remarks spent several days at the volcano 



m July and August, 184(5 — some six weeks elapsing between the 

 two visits. 



A letter has just been received from the Rev. Mr. Coan, the 

 enterprising American missionary at Hilo, Hawaii, whose name 

 has been so often mentioned in connection with this volcano, 

 sketching briefly the history of Kilauea since he and the writer 

 visited it together in 1846. The volcano lying within the limits 

 of Mr. Coan's missionary field, (though forty miles from Hilo,) 

 he often has occasion to pass it in his tours among his people, 

 and thus has become more familiar, probably, with its various 

 changes and aspects for the last fifteen years than any other 

 individual. 



Before giving Mr. Coan's letter, it may not be improper to re- 

 mark briefly on the appearance of the crater at the time of the 

 writer's visits in 1846. 



. -^^ that time the volcano was represented by Mr. Coan as being 

 "1 one of its more quiet moods. Indeed, the first view obtained 

 of it or^our arrival was so little attractive as almost to produce a 

 feeling' of disappointment. The less curious class of visitors 

 sometimes ex]x^rience this feeling so keenly that they turn on 

 their heel at once and refuse to descend into the crater, fully con- 

 vinced that they have been deceived by extravagant descrip- 

 tions, and that nothing is to be seen that will repay them for the 

 trouble. On reaching the brink of the pit, instead of loud deto- 

 nations and billows of fire, the ear heard nothing save the mur- 

 niuring of the strong northeast wind as it rushed over the pre- 

 cipice, and the eye saw nothing save a broad, deep, enclosed val- 

 jey— an apparently sunken tract of the earth's surrace—with a 

 black level bottom, strikingly resembling an area of burnt prairie 

 ^and, from the distant extremity of which were lazily rolling up 

 a few clouds of smoke and vapor, as if the prairie-fire were not 

 yet wholly extinguished. 



*" 



X 



See also Rep. ou Geol. Expl Exp., Ciap. III. ^ 





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