W. T. Brigharn — Kilauea in 1880. 



21 



350 feet high. Nor was this hill of lava simply the overflow 

 of the lakes whence the lava runs in frequent outbreaks ; the 

 mass was partly composed of these numberless little overflows, 

 but the great mass was evidently elevated in the centre and 

 the cracks every where indicated that this elevation was not a 

 slow cumulative action but had been, at intervals, greatly and 

 irregularly accelerated. 



In 1865 the floor of the crater was very irregular, full of 

 caves and intersected by great cracks, but its general surface 

 was nearly horizontal. A few years later the floor fell in over 

 about a third of its area* and the caves and cracks were alike 

 obliterated, a funnel like depression remaining with but slight 

 signs of fire at the bottom. The action however continued 

 until the funnel was not only filled up but the overflow from 

 it reached the outer walls of Kilauea, and then, for a while, 

 the action decreased and the lava cooled. A renewal of activ- 

 ity floated this crust as is indicated by occasional outflows at 

 the edges, and so the intermittent action had in 1880 formed a 

 tolerably regular dome surmounted by four lakes f of an aver- 

 age diameter of a thousand feet each. The walls of these lakes 

 of fire were much broken and changing daily. They were ele- 

 vated in places far above the contour of the dome, and from the 

 action of heated vapors, were decomposed until their layered 

 structure was plainly visible at a distance by the bands of 

 brilliant colors not unlike those of the clay cliffs at Gay Head 

 on Martha's Vineyard. Emerald-green, vermilion, blue and 

 indian-yellow, irregularly distributed, indicated either very little 

 homogeneity of the masses or uncertain action of the sulphur- 

 ous and acid vapors. 





From South East Lake— toward North. 



It was very easy to see what tumbled down these fantastic 

 cliffs, for the molten mass within the lakes was most active near 

 the edges and under the banks which were undermined horizon- 



*See plan, Mem. Bost Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. i, p. 572. 

 fThe latest (southeast) began to form May 15th, 1880. 



