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



east path down into the crater, and other " boiling caldrons" 

 not far distant, so that access to the pit was cut off'. The crater 

 seemed to be ready for another eruption. On October 9th, the 

 crater was still active, but less intensely so ; the dome over 

 Halema'uma'u had fallen in. 



Mr. Coan's report of March, 1856, mentions several visits to 

 the summit-eruption then in progress, but nothing about Kilauea 

 until October of that year, when he speaks of the crater* as de- 

 clining in activity for the year past, since the summit eruption 

 began ; "getting more and more profoundly asleep;" "only a 

 little sluggish lava in the great pit of Halema'uma'u but much 

 escaping vapor." A subterranean discharge took place prob- 

 ably in October, 1855. 



4. 1855 to 1864. — In June of 1857 Kilauea was still quiet, f 

 The lavas of the Great Lake were but 500 feet across and 100 

 feet below the edge. The alternations from the crusted to the 

 completely molten state took about three minutes. 



Through the following year, as during the two preceding, 

 there was little- change. In August, 1858, the Great Lake, 

 some 500 feet in diameter, " boiled and sputtered lazily at the 

 center of a deep basin which occupied the locality of the old 

 dome." The action alternated between general refrigeration 

 and a breaking up of the whole surface with intense ebulli- 

 tion."^: 



In 1862, the condition was but little different. Halema'uma'u 

 had a lake at center "about 600 feet in diameter." Within the 

 basin, a fourth of a mile from the border of the lake at its 

 center, there was a large mound of lava [a blow-hole product] 

 with pinacles and turrets, somewhat cathedral like.§ In the 

 summer of 1863, || activity had not much increased ; at intervals 

 of a few seconds to half a minute, a large fountain broke forth 

 at the middle of the lake throwing up a rounded crest of lava 

 10 to 12 feet, and smaller portions to a height of 20 to 30 feet, 

 while elsewhere there was a filmy crust through which small 

 stones thrown in sank ; and then again there was ebullition at 

 various points in the lake: facts showing that the action was 

 still far from brilliant. 



In October, 1863, Mr. Coan reported new activity in the 

 Great Lake, and through the whole circumference of the crater, 

 with outflows that covered the old black ledge with fresh lavas. 

 But the central plateau, "a distinct table-land," probably 500 

 to 600 feet above the bottom of 1840, remained unchanged.^" 



* Coan, this Journal, IT, xxiii, 435, 1857, letter of Oct. 22, 1856. 



f Coan, ibid., xxv. 136, 1858, letter of Sept. 1, 1857. 



% Coan, ibid., xxvii, 411, 1859, letter of Feb. 3, 1859. 



§Coan. ibid, xxxv, 296, 1863, letter of Nov. 13, 1862. 



|| 0. H. Gulick, ibid., xxxvii, 416, 1864, letter of July 25, 1863. 



If Coan, ibid., xxxvii, 415, 1864, letter of Oct. 6, 1863. 



