26 IF. T. Brigham— Kilauea in 1S80. 



quake two da} T s before at Stone's Eancb many miles from 

 Kilauea, and it was not unlike the sound of many looms in a 

 cotton factory. Here there was no earthquake tremor although 

 there is always in and about Kilauea a vibration of the ground 

 very clearly seen when using a compass needle, but seldom 

 noticed otherwise. 



The cliff where I watched was not over the lowest part of 

 the crater, but was where the active pools approached nearest 

 to the outer walls, for the dome has a very eccentric apes. The 

 fluidity of the lava as it came to the surface was about that of 

 cream. There is so far as I know no definite scale to which we 

 may refer various degrees of viscidity, and I am compelled to 

 use homely comparisons which have the further disadvantage 

 of being a variable standard. It was white-hot cream when it 

 came out from under the crust, but in the distance of perhaps 

 a foot had changed to a cherry red molasses, while a few feet 

 more transformed the stream into dull red tar. By daylight 

 the color ranges from that of arterial to venous blood, and 

 thence to a slaty blue marking the loss of temperature by 

 chromatic changes. At night all the moving portion is a 

 bright red. A single outlet of small dimensions made much 

 noise blowing, although the gas expelled was invisible. The 



lava (A in the diagram) issued white- 

 C^—S ~\ hot, ran a few feet rapidly, then crusted 



over, retaining its red glow along the 

 edges of the narrow conduit C. At B 

 there was a contraction and the flow 

 stopped for a while ; then the fountain 

 at A renewed the supply and the 

 lava ran rapidly from the narrow outlet B, spreading in 

 a broad, thin sheet which did not lose its color until it reached 

 the point E, while the original narrower and thicker stream 

 had formed a crust and become black in less than a quarter of 

 the distance. In places the lava met upward inclines, then the 

 cooling but still flexible crust made a dam and carried the fluid 

 part up and over a rise of some feet. The little lava spring 

 was an epitome of a full lava flow and was more instructive 

 than the immense fiery floods that from time to time break out 

 from these volcanoes and flow for many miles. Later in the 

 evening this insignificant flow became more active, covering 

 twenty acres and giving more light than the lakes themselves. 



Over one of the steam cracks near the Volcano House on 

 the northeastern bank, and in close proximity to what remained 

 of the sulphur bank, had been built a very rude steam bath. 

 A hut of ample dimensions, a box with a stool in it, and loose 

 boards to fit around the neck of the bather, with a wooden 

 sluice from the steam crack to the box and a slide to regulate 



