LETTER XXIX.* 



A Second Visit to Kilauea— Remarkable Changes in Halemaumau— 

 Terrible Aspects of the Pit— Theory and Aspects of the "Blowing 

 Cones " — A Shock of Earthquake— A Mountain Ranch. 



Crater House, Kilauea, Jime ^th. 



Once more I write with the splendours of the quenchless 

 fires in sight, and the usual world seems twilight and common- 

 place by the fierce glare of Halemaumau, and the fitful glare of 

 the other and loftier flame, which is burning ten thousand feet 

 higher in lonely Mokua-weo-weo. 



Mr. Green and I left Hilo soon after daylight this morning, 

 and made about " the worst time " ever made on the route. 

 We jogged on slowly and silently for thirty miles in Indian file, 

 through bursts of tropical beauty, over an ocean of fern-clad 

 pahoehoe, the air hot and stagnant, the horses lazy and indif- 

 ferent, till I was awoke from the kind of cautious doze into 

 which one falls on a sure-footed horse, by a decided cool- 

 ness in the atmosphere, and Kahele broke into a lumbering 

 gallop, which he kept up till we reached this house, where, in 

 spite of the exercise, we are glad to get close to a large wood 

 fire. Although we are shivering, the mercury is at 57°, but in 

 this warm and equable climate, one's sensations are not signi- 

 ficant of the height of the thermometer. 



It is very fascinating to be here on the crater's edge, and to 

 look across its three miles of blackness to the clouds of red 

 vapour which Halemaumau is sending up, and altogether ex- 

 citing to watch the lofty curve of Mauna Loa upheave itself 

 against the moon, while far and faint, we see, or think we see, 

 that solemn light, which ever since my landing at Kawaihae 

 has been so mysteriously attractive. It is three days off yet. 



* I venture to present this journal letter just as it was written, trusting 

 that the interest which attaches to volcanic regions, will carry the reader 

 through the minuteness and multiplicity of the details. 



