me 
T. Coan on the Crater of Kilauea. 97 
which no human foot can scale. At some points, immense ava- 
lauches have fallen from these high battlements, forming a steep 
inclined plane of confused and toppling debris, from the base of 
the walls two-thirds of the way up to their summits. On the 
north and west the elevation is less and less abrupt, and the pla- 
teau can be ascended from these points. 
This central “table-rock,” as will be seen, is surrounded by 
what used to be called The Black Ledge,” embracing all that 
portion of the crater which was sunk to the depth of 400 feet dur- 
ing the eruption of 1840. Of course “the Black Ledge” is now a 
lower plane than this central table, at its highest points, by about 
200 feet. Many parts of “the Black Ledge,” have also been el- 
evated by local overflowings, and all of it, probably, by subterra- 
nean forces, 
Occasionally the light of Kilauea is seen along the shores of 
Hawaii; but these exhibitions have been faint and few since 
840—a result of the roofing over of Halemanman (the great 
Pacific. These hidden eruptions will, doubtless, add to the dry 
land in our ocean in due time. Should there be a connection 
and a sympathy between these lower eruptive points and those 
above us, we may argue a diminution of the upper fires in pro- 
portion to the intensity of the submarine; and yet this may not 
follow, as we have magnificent eruptions on Mauna Loa, while 
Kilauea Sleeps. These phenomena have puzzled me; but the 
‘shes my mind better than any theory I have seen. 
All is quiet at Mauna Loa. The eruption of 1852 still steams 
alittle at a few points in the woods back of us, not half so much 
however, as the eruption of 1840. ‘There are points on this line, 
(that of 1840,) midway from Kilauea to the sea, where there 
are still much smoke and heat. 
ou ask if there were any small cones thrown up along the 
stream in the eruption of 1852. There were a few, but none of 
much size, so far as I explored. You are aware that the erup- 
tion commenced on the 17th of February, on the summit of 
Mauna Loa. In two days this valve closed, and the summit ac- 
tion ceased. On the 20th the lateral valve opened, 4000 feet below 
the top of the mountain, and the thundering torrent of fire rushed 
Cut and continued its awful disgorgement for twenty days. Be- 
tween the summit point and the lower one, the ribs of the moun- 
Nb Series, Vol. XVILL, No. 52—July, 1854. 18 
