"The new lava lake exhibited during this evening the common phenomena so often described. Cracks formed in the dull crust, lava pushed out in sheets or tongues, plates of the crust turned up and sunk in the molten lake beneath. The illumination was often brilliant, and all the conditions combined to make the scene grand and impressive. On October 24th there was no flow ; the floor was so solidified that fracturing and extrusion of lava was rare and of small extent. At the blow hole there was frequently repeated the process of sealing up the orifice by viscous matter, then a bursting out, making a new hole, which would be sealed up again in an hour or two." "On the evening of the 25th the strong glow indicated action, and there was another thin flow over the sheet of the 23d. The spatter cone remained on the north side and no other vent could be seen. The action was that of sealing up and bursting again, without any discharge. On the 27th just before daylight a bright glow was noted over Halemaumau, which was occasioned by an other thin flow." The three flows recorded built up the inside mass, perhaps twenty-five feet. He supposes the process of filling up Halemau mau will be continued in a similar manner, unless relief be found by an outbreak of the lava at some lower level, as has often been the case in the past history of the volcano.
In the Hawaiian Gazette for November 18th, appears a further report of the display for a week commencing November 7th. Friday, November 7 : Cone spitting fire only ; no flow. Saturday and Sunday : No change.
Monday, November 10: At 2 A. M. fountain commenced to play.
Tuesday : Today the action is stronger than it has been during the present outbreak ; cone blown to pieces, and a geyser spout ing fire twenty feet high and about as wide, forming a lake from bank to bank of liquid lava, which is about six hundred feet across : this action continued all day and night.
Wednesday and Thursday, November 12, 13 : The action con tinues as strong as ever, building up the lava lake very rapidly. The lowest floor of the pit has risen one hundred feet since Octo ber 20. These were wireless messages from the Volcano House to Mr. Richard Trent.
In the same issue a diagram is given representing the dimen sions of the pit, and the amount of the filling since June 1st. The breadth of the pit, 1,500 feet. Depth, June r, 1,000 feet. Level of the lava October 20, one hundred and seventy-five feet above the bottom. November 13, level of the lava two hundred and seventy-five feet above the bottom, seven hundred and twenty five feet below the surface of Halemaumau.
From Thrum's Annual for 1903, the report for 1902 is con firmatory of the preceding statements. On the evening of August 25th, lava suddenly appeared in the pit, accompanied by earth quakes of nearly the same date at Hilo. Then it was quiet till September 19th. Another manifestation showed itself October iith. Measurements proved that the lava had risen one hundred and seventy-five feet since June ; the pit in September being eight hundred and sixty feet in depth and about two hundred across.
On the night of October 23d three, and occasionally four foun tains of lava spouted up from below. November Toth the entire floor of Halemaumau was a mass of molten lava throwing up geyser-like streams.
The Hawaiian Star of March 13, 1903, prints an anonymous statement that there was a manifestation of molten lava about fifty feet wide in the bottom of Halemaumau.
June 21, 1903, Hon. W. R. Castle states that the conditions were very much the same that he saw in 1874, except a filling up by fresh lava for about three hundred feet. Total depth esti mated to be seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred feet. He adds : "The time has come when the United States Government might well reserve the whole region of Mokuaweoweo to the sea at Puna ; a long narrow strip to include Kilauea and the line of pit craters; a comparatively worthless tract of country commer cially. It should also include the Koa tree moulds at Kuapaa \vela, where a forest of giant trees was surrounded by a deep flow of later age." August 23: Clouds of smoke are ascending from the pit. Fol lowing this date all was quiet for a long time.
November 25 : Halemaumau is in action. There was a glow at 4:15 A. M., when a lake formed, forty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, in the bottom of the crater. Fountains of fire showed themselves, and the other phenomena customarily ob servable in their company. Remained active till Jan. RD, 1904.
In 1903 a new survey of Kilauea was made under the auspices of the Bishop Museum. A relief of the volcano upon the scale of one hundred and thirty feet to the inch has been prepared by William Alanson Bryan and placed on exhibition. It is the most effective illustration of the volcano ever displayed ; and it is un derstood that the earlier survey of Dr. Brigham in 1865 was found to be accurate. The explanatory text represents that the complete area of Kilauea as portrayed in the relief amounts to 2,650 acres ; the circumference 7.85 miles; extreme length 15,500 feet or 2.93 miles. The most noticeable change in the representa tion is the emphatic manifestation of a greater altitude to the east of Kilauea iki. All previous restorations have made the land to fall off towards the sea (makai). The exact figures are not given save as they are embodied in the model.
August 13-17, 1904: Professor G. H. Barton visited the vol cano with a company of tourists, and compares the present state of inactivity with the brilliant displays he had seen twenty-two years earlier.
19o4: Hon. L. A. Thurston writes thus November 8th: There have been only slight changes since September 12, 1902. Cracks along the outer rim of the pit have widened, and the approaches seem more dangerous than ever before. No fire nor steam ap pears in the pit, but there is a considerable sulphur vapor from the extreme bottom. A new path has been made around Kilauea iki for which he suggests the name Echo trail—for five distinct echoes can be heard from the west bank of Keanakakoi.