584 DAY AND SHEPHERD WATER AND VOLCANIC ACTIVITY 



Although the identity and something of the relation of the gases dis- 

 charged from the basin of Halemaumau can be established from a study 

 of the material collected in May, the determination of the exact propor- 

 tion of water to the other gases present must await another favorable 

 opportunity. It may perhaps be added that a complete equipment for 

 another attempt lies ready at the laboratory of the Volcano Eesearch 

 Association on the crater rim, but the lava lake disappeared completely 

 from view soon after the December descent was made and has not again 

 reappeared. 



Although the continuation of the field studies must await the gracious 

 pleasure of the most fickle of goddesses, it need not delay the prosecution 

 of the laboratory study of the relations between the gases already found 

 or the preliminary discussion of the results thus far attained. Moreover, 

 in the discussion which follows evidence will be offered that the composi- 

 tion of the gases varies within considerable limits, so that the precise pro- 

 portions of the gases which go to make up the exhalation at any particular 

 moment may prove to be of less importance than was at first believed. 



Chemical Study of the Material collected 



From a physico-chemical viewpoint, the study of volcanic activity cen- 

 ters first on the nature of the participating ingredients, then on the con- 

 dition of equilibrium or the progress of the reactions taking place between 

 them, as the case may be. At the time of our two visits all the three 

 states of matter — gaseous, liquid, and solid — were found represented. 

 Gases were emitted constantly in great volume, and displayed nearly all 

 the great variety of cloud forms which have been so frequently described 

 in volcano literature except the violently explosive type, which has been 

 rarely or never seen at Kilauea since the advent of the white man (1820) . 

 There was a liquid lava basin of oval shape some 600 by 300 feet, inclosed 

 by a lava dike or rampart built up from the surrounding floor of the 

 basin by the tumultuous spattering and splashing of the lava lake (plate 

 21). Both floor and rampart are frequently overflowed when the lake is 

 high, and again great masses of it fall into the lake and are redissolved 

 when it is low. The floor of the pit at the time of our first descent in 

 May, 1912. had been completely overflowed but three days before and was 

 reasonably level. The fresh lava had solidified to a depth of some 10 

 inches and was abundantly solid to walk on, but was still uncomfortably 

 hot and the cracks were still glowing. 



Surrounding this floor are the walls of the pit, some 200 feet high at 

 the time of our first descent and made up of the exposed edges of sue- 



