96 T. Coan on the Crater of Kilauea. 
Art. XV.—On the present condition of the Crater of Kilauea, 
Hawaii; by Rev. Trrvs Coan.* se 
Kiavea is still quiet. Many parties have visited the crater 
during the past year, and of these I have made special inquiries, as 
I have not been able to visit it myself. Changes have been slowly 
taking place within the crater. The aperture in the summit of 
the great dome which covers the igneous lake,} is gradually en- 
Jarging by the falling of avalanches from its walls, and thus reveal- 
ing more and more of the fiery abyss below. But the melted lava 
does not approach the top of the dome. It is still 150 feet below, 
and you see it as you see the fire in the bottom of a coal-pit, by 
looking down through an orifice in the summit. The dome is 
probably two miles in circuit at its base, and some 400 feet high. 
Steam and smoke are constantly escaping from numerous holes 
the highest points of which are now some 600 feet above what 
was the floor after the eruption of 1840. This central elevation 
rises in some places gradually, in others abruptly, from the suf 
rounding floor. On the east and southeast its mural walls at 
perpendicular, presenting a dark, lofty, and frowning rampatt, 
* From a letter to J. D. Dana, dated Hilo, Hawaii, Jan. 30, 1854. 
+ The lake referred to cee ane the southern end of the large area that form# 
the bottom of the crater of uea—D, 
Oe 
