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VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, Jan. 31. Bruised aching bones, strained muscles, and overwhelming fatigue, render it hardly possible for me to undergo the physical labour of writing, but in spirit I am so elated with the triumph of success, and so thrilled by new sensations, that though I cannot communicate the incommunicable, I want to write to you while the impression of Kilauea is fresh, and by "the light that never was on sea or shore."
The one is named Mouna-Kaah or Keah, the other is Mouna-Loa the same on whose lower flanks the crater of Kilauea is situated. Mouna-Kaah has long been in a state of repose. So also was Mouna-Loa up to 1840, when it burst forth with great fury, and it has continued more or less in a state of activity ever since.
The earth opened in thousands of places, the roads in Hilo cracked open, horses and their riders, and people afoot, were thrown violently to the ground; "it seemed as if the rocky ribs of the mountains, and the granite walls and pillars of the earth were breaking up." At Kilauea the shocks were as frequent as the ticking of a watch.
The hills began to shake; vast roarings were beard; a choking fume of sulphur filled the air, dust rolled upward, making a darkness like the night; then, with a crash like the bursting of a world, the top of Kilauea was blown toward the heavens in an upward shower of rock; a fierce glow colored the ash-clouds that volleyed from the crater, and down the valley came pouring a flood of lava, a river of white fire, crested with the flame of burning forests, as with foam.
You will remember that I wrote from Kilauea regarding the terror which the Goddess of the Crater inspired, and her high-priest was necessarily a very awful personage. The particular high-priest of whom Mr. Coan told me was six feet five inches in height, and his sister, who was co-ordinate with him in authority, had a scarcely inferior altitude. His chief business was to keep Pele appeased.
They brought me here from Oahu in eighteen hours, for which I thank them heartily. You will think me a Sybarite for howling about those eighteen hours of running to leeward, when the residents of Kauai, if they have to go to Honolulu in the intervals between the quarterly trips of the Kilauea, have to spend from three to nine days in beating to windward.
It is three days off yet. Perhaps its spasmodic fires will die out, and we shall find only blackness. Perhaps anything, except our seeing it as it ought to be seen! The practical difficulty about a guide increases, and Mr. Gilman cannot help us to solve it. And if it be so cold at 4000 feet, what will it be at 14,000? KILAUEA. June 5th.
It is said to rain there every day in the year, and the lush vegetation made the statement seem credible. Judge Andrews met us at the steamer, and took us to his home for rest and dinner, and was extremely kind to us. In the mid-afternoon we took the train for Glenwood, thirty miles on our way to the volcano of Kilauea.
Such a man would reconcile me to far greater discomfort than that of the "Kilauea." I wonder if he is ever unamiable, or tired, or perturbed? The next day was fine, and we were all much on deck to dry our clothes in the sun. The southern and leeward coasts of Hawaii as far as Kawaaloa are not much more attractive than coal-fields.
Hawaii, Sandwich Islands Crater of Kilauea Its awful Aspect Fiery Lake and Islands Jets of Lava Depth of Crater and Surface of Lake Bank of Sulphur Curious Rainbow Mouna-Kaah and Mouna- Loa Eruption of the Latter in 1840 Recent Eruption Great Jet and Torrent of Lava Burning of the Forests Great Whirlwinds Underground Explosions Other Volcanoes in the Pacific.
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