TeV iyA WRTA, HUACW ATT. 197 
mistake is, perhaps, a natural inference from a successive appear- 
ance of lavas from a subterranean source. ‘The ejected lavas in 
fact flowed but a comparatively short distance from the point where 
they were poured out, and ceased flowing as soon as the supply 
ceased ; and the outbreak beyond was not a second outbreak of a for- 
mer superficial stream, but another branch from the main lava channel 
below. There was an internal rupture of the mountain which reached 
the surface at successive points, and showed its greatest effects to- 
wards the base of the mountain. 
IV. Effect of eruptions on Kilauea.—The settling of the bottom of 
the great pit, or of its middle portions, four or five hundred feet, is 
the immediate effect of an eruption. The walls of the lower pit ex- 
hibit a section of the layers of lava which had accumulated during 
the previous period ; and we are struck at once with the compactness 
of the rock and the absence of scoria. 
On the country immediately around Kilauea, the influence of these 
eruptions is manifest in extensive subsidences. On the north-northeast, 
there is a terrace, (e, page 173,) which extends nearly a mile distant 
from the pit, and stretches off to the eastward ; it includes within its 
limits the northeast sulphur bank. This terrace to the west is, in 
some parts, sixty feet in height. The branch from it to the east, 
which is descended on approaching Kilauea by the usual route from 
Hilo, is two or three hundred feet in height. Deep fissures occur in 
the northeast corner of the crater (m), at the place of descent, some 
of which are of dark unfathomed depths; and from them steam is 
constantly rising and condensing in pools of pure water. They are 
not represented in the plan by Lieutenant Malden, (page 185,) and 
were formed, it is supposed, at the eruption of 1832. On the east, 
between Kilauea and the “ Old Crater” (7), there is a plain (at p) 
bordered by walls one hundred and fifty feet high, indicating a 
subsidence to this extent over this isthmus. Around the southeast, 
south and west sides there are many fissures and some extensive 
terraces, but of what exact amount was not ascertained. Dr. Pick- 
ering passed the terrace on the east, near the second pit crater, or 
about a mile and a half from Kilauea, and at that place it was one 
hundred feet in height. ‘Thus on nearly every side, the region about 
Kilauea has sunk, from the undermining processes at work, and the 
walls are in many places intersected by fissures. The greatest 
amount of action of this kind occurs in the line of the longer diameter 
of the crater, running nearly northeast and southwest. The whole 
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