86 J. D. Dana — History of the Changes in Kilauea. 



The crater at the time of Mr. Lyman's visit was moderately 

 active. The diameters of the Great Lake were 2400 and 2000 

 feet. Over its surface, ten or fifteen feet below the brim, on 

 which he stood, the lavas were in gentle ebullition, tossing up 

 broken jets 5 to 15 feet, and passing through frequent transi- 

 tions between a crusted and a wholly molten state. It is evi- 

 dence of relatively feeble activity that, standing on the brink, a 

 handkerchief before the face was sufficient to shield it from the 

 heat. In November of 1840, it was hardly possible to walk on 

 the black ledge abreast of the lake, on account of the intense 

 heat and light. " The lavas had a general movement to the 

 southwest. "A large stick of wood thrown on the lake, at a 

 point where the ebullition produced a sort of eddy or rolling 

 in of the lava, was immediately taken out of sight; but the 

 next instant a more violent ebullition with a sudden outburst 

 of flame and smoke told how, almost instantaneously, the stick 

 had been transformed into charcoal." 



The following year, in July, the Great Lake was boiling in 

 much the same way as in 1846, with the liquid lavas still 

 accessible, so that portions were taken out with canes.* 



Early in 1848 the lake was the most of the time unusually 

 inactive and became, as Mr. Coan states, f thickly encrusted 

 over. The solid crust was soon after raised into a dome 200 

 or 800 feet high, covering the whole lake. By August, the 

 dome was almost high enough " to overtop the lower part of 

 the outer wall of Kilauea and look out upon the surrounding 

 country." The fires within were visible through fissures ; and 

 occasionally lavas were ejected in sluggish masses, or forcibly, 

 from several apertures or orifices of the dome, which " rolled 

 in heavy and irregular streams down the sides," spreading and 

 cooling over the slopes or at the base. "The dome, as it now 

 stands," Mr. Coan wrote, "has been formed by the compound 

 action of upheaving forces from beneath, and of eruptions from 

 the openings forming successive lavers upon its external sur- 

 face." 



This is the first account of a dome over Halema'uma'u ; and 

 the description and explanation of it agree with accounts of the 

 most recent. During the most part of the year 1848, "no fire 

 was to be seen in Kilauea, even in the night." 



(2.) Eruption {probably) of 1849, and changes from 1849 to 

 1855. — After the events just mentioned, no important change 

 in the crater is mentioned before the spring of 1849, when in 

 April and May there was a return to great activity, and start- 

 ling detonations were 'heard from the cones about the dome. 

 The lavas were projected to a height of 50 to 60 feet from 

 an opening in the top, of the dome, and moreover the action 



* Coan, this Journal, II, xii, 80, letter of Jan., 1851. f Coan, ibid., p. 81. 



