618 F. A. Ferret — Some Kilauean Ejectamenta. 



Returning now for a moment to our first proposition, we 

 find in Kilauea a volcano whose past activity has been charac- 

 terized by the ejection of large quantities of ash as well as by 

 the emission of lava, and yet whose form is that of the fiat 

 dome with gentle declivities so characteristic of the Hawaiian 

 type. It is obvious that, although ejected ash may often accu- 

 mulate to a somewhat greater depth in the immediate neigh- 

 borhood of the vent, especially if coarser particles are present, 

 yet, on the whole, its manner of coming to earth is in the 

 nature of a sedimentary deposit, taking and maintaining the 

 general form of the surface upon which it falls. We may 

 venture, then, to enunciate the principle that the ejection of 

 ash need not, per se, materially affect the form of the volcanic 

 edifice, that being the function of the degree of viscosity of 

 the fluent lava and of the presence of larger fragmentary 

 ejecta. We should not conclude, therefore, that a flat dome is 

 necessarily composed entirely of massive lava and that its past 

 activity has been free from the explosive emission of ash. 



In regions where civilization is recent and true history does 

 not extend far into the past, the native tradition becomes of 

 enormous importance, especially when it can be compared 

 with, and controlled by, the local geological revelations. That 

 relating to Kilauea is rendered by the Rev. W. D. Westervelt 

 as follows : 



Tradition — Kirauea. 



" In earlier ages it used to boil up, overflow its banks and inun- 

 date the adjacent country ; but for many king's reigns past it 

 had kept below the level of the surrounding plain, continually 

 extending its surface and increasing in depth and occasionally 

 throwing up with violent explosions huge rocks or red-hot stones. 

 These eruptions were always accompanied by dreadful earth- 

 quakes, loud claps of thunder and vivid and quick succeeding 

 lightning. No great explosion had taken place since the days of 

 Keoua (1790) but many places near the sea had since been over- 

 flowed, on which occasions Pele went by a road underground 

 from her house in the crater to the shore. Kirauea had been 

 burning ever since the islands emerged from night. ' Mai ka po 

 mai ' — from chaos until now." 



In this picturesque little tradition we have the story of the 

 volcano — the formation of the dome by centrifugal overflows 

 from a central vent ; the period of subsidence with the forma- 

 tion of a great pit or caldera ; the explosive phases with vol- 

 canic lightnings testifying to great quantities of ash ; the 

 subsequent lateral subterranean outflows of lava to the sea — a 

 volume could be devoted to its expansion. 



April 2, 1913. 



