THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 480, 14 June 1890, Page 6

THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA.

Visit to the Crater and Burning Lake

Amongst the many places to bo visited on the Hawaiian Islands, the volcano on Mauna Loa and the lake of fire at Kilauea on Hawaii, are, perhaps, the most interesting to those who do not mind a rough voyage between the islands, and tho equally rough journey by land. The inter-island steamers vary much in their degrees of comfort, but perhaps the largest and best are those which convey the tourists to the port of Hilo, from where one must take horse for a long, steady ride up hill to the Volcano house, as the stopping place for visitors:to tho far-famed volcano is called. From the verandah of the hotel the red glare of the crater was seen very distinctly through the deep tropical darkness, and though undoubtedly the best time for seeing the lake of fire, the guide refused to take us at night, so a good rest after the fatigues of travelling was most acceptable. The next morning, after breakfast, the guide accompanying u?, we started for the crater, walking at first through a jungle of small ohia trees,jthen in full blossom, bright crimson in colour, mingled with a shrub called by the natives ‘ turkey wings,’ bearing red berries, which the guide declared good to eat; they were much the same in apnearance as small cherries. The jungle sloped down, and at the foot of the batik we came on the bed of cooled Java, and walked over it to within a hundred yards of the burning lake of lava, called by the natives of Halemaumau, a truly good sight. About fifty feet off was a hill, or crest of lava, on which the guide would not let us go, as he said it probably would give way at any moment, for the lava on which we were then standing was quite hot. For more than two miles we Lad walked on lava, merely a thin crust over the fires, and liable at any moment to burst out with fresh force. About a hundred and fifty yards from where we stood the guide showed us a dark-looking hole from which a fortnight before an immense quantity of lava had issued, and only six months before, the lava had flowed up to the very edge of tho bank which we had come down.

The lake itself, abouo four hundred feet by one hundred, was of an iron grey colour and here and there we could see the red hot lava flowing along tho surface ; then a wave would cross, the sun shining so brightly on it, one might fancy ifc a wave of the sea, topped by a red crest instead of a “ white horse.’ The edge of the lake was all fire, and on the side nearest to us, at short intervals, the red lava would be thrown up twenty to thirty feet, Often it is thrown as high as one hundred feet, we are told. For a few seconds all would be apparently quiet, and then a rolling wa\e would cross and burst into a myriad of leaping fires,showing a constant, terrible force at work below the earth’s surface. Tho lake and its surroundings are constantly changing—immediately below us, anrl on our right, the lava was quite still, and only three days ago it was a heaving mass, flowing and molten. The bed of lava in the crater is quite four miles in extent, probably more, and specimens very beautiful in shape and colour can be picked up in many directions—and some curious material, like spun glass, brittle and shining, very fine in substance. Ir is known as ‘ Pole’s Hair,’ Pele being tho presiding goddess of the volcano.— “Scenes in Hawaii.’