J. D. Dana—History of the Changes in Kilauea. 447 
three miles an hour, boiling up as a spring at one end and run- 
ning to the other.” Mr. Alexander, while in the crater four 
months later, found this lake, ‘the principal furnace, not in 
lively action,” and ascended, much disappointed; but by the 
time he had reached the summit, “the grand crater commenced 
furious action, spouting with a roaring sound, streams of melted 
lava far into the air.” The next day he went again to the bot- 
tom, and direct to the great boiling caldron ‘two and a half 
miles distant,” and found it “3000 feet long and 1000 feet 
wide, tossing its fiery surges 40 or 50 feet into the air.” He 
went to the brink of the lake, but left it on account of the 
fumes, and three minutes afterward the spot was covered with 
the lavas of an overflow, ‘“‘ which,” he says, ‘‘seemed to pursue 
us as we hastened away.” It is important to observe that uni- 
formly the “far into the air” and similar expressions in the 
general descriptions of travelers become, when put in figures, 
not far from 30, 40 or 50 feet of actual height. 
Mr. Douglas, whose visit was in 1834, reports (XI) that he 
found two great boiling lakes in the crater, a northern 819 yards 
in diameter, and a southern 1190 by 700 yards in area, heart- 
shaped in form. The ereat southern lake was ‘“‘at times calm 
and level, the numerous fiery-red streaks on its surface alone 
attesting its state of ebullition, when again the red hot lavas 
would dart upwards and boil with terrife grandeur, spouting to 
a height which from the distance at which I stood (on the west 
wall) I calculated to be from 20 to 70 feet. Close by stood a 
chimney above 40 feet high which occasionally discharged its 
steam as if all the steam engines in the world were concentrated 
in it.” There were other chimneys over the bottom, some 
active and others comparatively quiet. In each of the large 
lakes the lavas had an apparent movement southward, the 
velocity of which Mr. Douglas measured (by throwing ona 
block of lava and seeing how long it took to go 100 yards) 
making it nearly 34 miles an hour.* 
c. Filling of the pit after the eruption of 1832.—On the 8th of 
* Mr. Douglas’s testimony with regard to the Hawaiian volcanoes has been 
doubted because of his incredible account of what he saw at the summit crater in 
a letter to the eminent botanist, Dr. Hooker. But I find that injustice has been 
done him. His Journal of his visit to the summit ([Xa), evidently written by 
him at the time of his observations, represents the crater as having been long 
quiet. While at Honolulu, over three months later (May 3), he wrote Capt. Sabine 
on his various physical investigations and barometric measurements, and gave 
him the same facts-as to the summit crater that he has in his Journal, and 
partly in the same words. Only three days later (May 6) he wrote his letter 
to Dr. Hooker—a reasonable letter in all parts excepting its description of the 
terrific activity and immense size of the Mt. Loa crater. His words indicate a 
mixing up and magnifying of what he had seen at the Kilauea and summit 
craters, which can be explained only on the ground of temporary hallucination. 
Mr. Douglas was an excellent Scotchman, and all the rest of his writings are 
beyond questioning. 
