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KILAUEA, HAWAIL 187 
of Mr. Douglas,* Captain E. G. Kelley, (from statements by Captains 
Chase and Parker,)+ Count Strzelecki,{ and Captain John Shepherd.§ 
a. Mr. Douglas was at Kilauea in January, 1834. The pit by his 
measurements was one thousand feet deep, and the black ledge and 
lower pit appear to have been in the same condition as when seen by 
Mr. Bishop. There was a lake of boiling lava in the north end, 
three hundred and nineteen yards in diameter, besides the large one 
in the south end. The apparent flow of lavas to the southward was 
estimated to have a velocity of three and one-fourth miles per hour. 
6. Captains Chase and Parker visited the crater in 1838, four years 
after Mr. Douglas. At that time, as the sketch made on the spot in- 
dicates, the lavas had so increased that the lower pit was almost oblite- 
rated, the bottom having risen nearly to a level with the black ledge. 
This will be understood from the figure on page 174: all the bottom 
pit between pa and p' n’ had become filled up, by the successive over- 
flowings, to within forty feet of the top, and over the four square miles 
of area, the fires were in great activity. There were six boiling lakes 
of lava, besides twenty-six cones from twenty to sixty feet high, and 
eight of the latter were throwing out cinders and red-hot lava. Standing 
by the side of one of the lakes, they looked down more than three 
hundred feet upon its agitated surface : “ After a few minutes, the vio- 
lent struggle ceased, and the whole surface of the lake was changed to 
a black mass of scoria; but the pause was only to renew its exertions ; 
for, while they were gazing at the change, suddenly the entire crust 
which had been formed commenced cracking, and the burning lava 
soon rolled across the lake, heaving the coating on its surface lke 
cakes of ice upon the ocean surge. Not far from the centre of the 
lake was an island which the lava was never seen to overflow.”” ‘These 
interesting facts illustrate several points of special importance in vol- 
canoes, viz. (1) the rapidity with which lava cools; (2) the frequent 
change of temperature that takes place even in the boiling lakes, arising 
from oscillations in the fountain below; (3) the formation of clinkers, 
well compared to the breaking up of ice. From the account of these 
observers, it appears that the whole bottom of the crater was not in 
* Jour. of the Roy. Geog. Soc. vol. iv. 
t American Journal of Science, xl. 117; with a drawing of the crater, which shows 
that the obliteration of the lower pit was nearly complete. 
{ Hawaiian Spectator, i. 436 ; also, in his New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, 
8vo., London, 1845, p. 106. 
§ Athenzeum, Nov. 14, 1840; Roy. Geog. Soc. of London, 1840, 
