'A 



"' 



1 



76 On the Recent Condition of Kilauea. 



At night, however, that part of the crater from which the x^a- 

 pors had been seen rising Avas Ht up with what seemed a glow- ^ 

 ing line of fire. This was the part of the volcano that has gen- ^ 

 erally been called the ^' Great lake," Save at this point, the * 

 volcanic fires were nowhere visible from the upper batikj and 

 only in a few other places were there seen indications of their 

 existence in the jets of steam that were issuing from crevices in 

 the lava. These steam jets, on further examination, were found 

 to exist even out of the crater on the upper bank, in the vicinity 

 of the huts in which visitors find temporary lodgings. 



The northern sulphur banks we found to be essentially in the 

 same condition as described by previous observers — lynig under 

 a bluff wall of rocky lava from which they are separated by a 

 crevice or chasmj out of which constantly issue steam and sul- 

 phureous gases, depositing on the rocks, and even on the branches 

 of certain species of vegetation, beautiful incrustations of sulphur 

 and other substances. 



Our place of descent into the crater was the usual one over the 

 broken declivity at the northeastern extremity. On reaching the 

 bottom, we found it difficult, at first, to identify any thing an- 

 swering to the " Black ledge" spoken of in the narrative of the 

 Exploring Expedition, and by most prev^ious observers. In 1840 

 the crater, as described by Capt. Wilkes, and by Mr. Dana in the 

 article already referred to, consisted of a sort of pit within a pit 

 a broad depression in the earth's surface, first by an ahnost per- 

 pendicular wall 650 feet in depth to the Black ledge, and then 

 leaving the ledge or terrace one or two thousand feet in width all 



o ""^ o 



around the crater — by a second abrupt descent of 350 feet or more 

 to the general level of the bottom. In this lower area in 1840, 

 were various pools of fluid lava^ the principal one, known as the 

 Great lake, lying towards the southwestern extremity, and meas- 

 uring at that time 1000 feet by 1500 in diameter. 



The terrace or Black ledge thus described we found almost 

 obliterated, the whole mterior of the pit having been filled up 

 nearly to a level with it, and in some places from fifty to more 

 than one hundred feet above it. By measuring a base line on 

 the ledge and taking angles with a quadrant, the height of the 

 uortfiwestern wall of the crater above the terrace was computed 

 to be GSO feet, which agrees nearly with the measurement of the 

 Exploring Expedition, and shows that this part of the floor has 

 not been elevated since 1840. Previous to the great eruption in 

 that year, however, there is good evidence that the entire area of 

 the crater, including the former Black ledge, had been repeatedly 

 overflowedj and thus the ledge of the Exploring Expedition, (and 

 which has remained unaltered to the present time,) placed at an 

 elev^ation of many feet, (some observers estimate it at two hun- 

 dred or more,) above the Black ledge of Douglass and the earlier 

 visitors. 



n 







m 



