184 



scmjsrcE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 212 



hundred feet. To the northward about two hun- 

 dred feet was a copious discharge of corrosive 

 vapors, which increased in strength in the course 

 of the following week. At night the fire could be 

 seen above the pit, just as at our earlier visits. It 

 was evident the fire had returned to Kilauea ; and 

 the drooping spirits of the proprietors, who had 

 made extensive preparations for the entertainment 

 of tourists, began to revive. On the 25th of June 

 a still larger vent opened upon the west side of the 

 deep pit, or rather two of them. Two lakes of 

 fire formed, divided by a very narrow ridge, 

 early at the level of the deepest part of the pit 



south a stretch of volcanic sand and debris fully 

 equal in dimensions to Kilauea itself. On ex- 

 amining more closely the material called 'sand- 

 stone ' and ' gravel ' upon the map, it was seen to 

 consist of material ejected from the volcano, and 

 numerous lava-bombs were picked up. Ashes 

 also cover the country to the south and south- 

 west over the Kau desert for several miles. The 

 conclusion is therefore forced upon us that the 

 earlier eruptions varied in character from any 

 thing that has been observed during the last half- 

 century. Ashes, sand, and stones were thrown to 

 a distance of several miles from the volcano ; so 



"~^i."5.?--?^-J^-- 



Fig. 3. —The new Halema'uma'u, as seen eaklt in October, 



(at least 800 feet below the Volcano House), and 

 having a length of 700 feet and a vs'idth of 400 

 feet. About the same time the lava flowed out of 

 the small opening of June 4, and is filling up the 

 deep pit. Professor Van Slyke of Oahu college 

 reports that the pit was entirely filled up at the 

 end of July, and that a conical mound is forming 

 above it. This will probably develop into a 

 second Halema'uma'u, occupying, as it does, ex- 

 actly the same place as the old one. All the dis- 

 charging vents are situated within the limits of 

 the sunken area of the map. 



Advantage was taken of our visit to explore 

 the southern part of the caldera. Standing at 

 Keana Kakoi, one sees to the south-west and 



that the Vesuvian type of action has been some- 

 times exemplified here.* It was in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Keana Kakoi that the army was suf- 

 focated in 1789, perhaps by the very eruption 

 whose debris are now strewed over the surface, 

 and it may have come possibly from Keana it- 

 self. 



It is not generally known that in 1868 the lava 

 of Kilauea discharged from a vent in the Kau 

 desert seven or eight miles distant. It has been 

 claimed by some that the flow at Kahuku in that 



1 Observations made in the sugar-plantation districts of 

 all tbe islands suggest that the suhsoil is probahly derived 

 from these aerial discharges rather than from the decom- 

 postion of lava or from a deposit beneath the ocean, as sug- 

 gested by Captain Button. 



