KILAUEA AFTER 1894.
For several years the volcano was quiet.
Sept. i6, 1894_ There was a lake deep down, visible only at intervals because of vapors. W. J. Forbes and David Thrum.
Dec. 6. The fire in the crater quietly disappeared in the night. J. M. Lee.
Jan. 3, 1896. Lava flowed from a hole two hundred and fifty feet above the extreme bottom of the pit and accumulated in a pool two hundred and fifty by two hundred feet in size. Depth estimated at four hundred and fifty feet. Peter Lee.
Fire disappeared again Jan. 28.
May 18. Fire extinct, though vast clouds of steam pour out. H. M. Whitney.
July i 1. Lake measured one hundred and fifty by one hun dred feet. Lava from the hole as before. This lake disap peared after a duration of three weeks.
July 28-31. English geologist, W. D. B. says, Crater, r,5oo feet across ; depth to fire, six hundred and fifty to six hundred and seventy feet; diameters three hundred and thirty to four hundred and thirty feet. Lava both rose and fell thirty feet. Small cone twenty feet high at northeast corner throwing out lava and vapors. Spectroscope showed faintly the lines of sodium and hydrogen, but not of iron or gases. Degree of heat far below that given by Dana.
Aug. 26. A. L. Colsten collects data for map. His plan of Halemaumau is shown in Plate 44A. His letters A. D. correspond to B. A. of an earlier plate. E is the place far viewing the fire pit. X Y Z, are the blow-holes. B and C are points of view on the south side. The fire lake is seven hundred and fifty-seven feet, like all the others, so much below the Vol cano House as the datum point. A is two hundred and seven ty-six, other points on the edge of the sunken pit two hundred and eighty-two, two hundred and seventy-five, two hundred and seventy-two ; the blow-holes, X, Y, Z, two hundred and sixty-eight, two hundred and sixty-nine, two hundred and seventy-two ; E, two hundred and seventy. D beyond Dry Lake two hundred and fifty-seven, two hundred and sixty. C, two hundred and seventy-five ; within the sunken pit three hundred and forty-two, five hundred and fifty-nine ; upon its inner edge, two hundred seventy-four, three hundred and six. Area of the pit 24.40 acres ; of the lake, 3.41 acres. The spout ing cone is thirty-two feet high, throwing up lava spray one hundred feet. The hachure lines show well the fact that Hale maumau is at the top of a shallow cone.
June 24, 1897. A little fire. Lasted for three days. J. M. Lee.
Jan. 14, 1898. Not a sign of life. Frank Godfrey.
Feb. 25, 1899. Excursion party report no activity.
March 26, 1899, the Hon. L. A. Thurston writes, the outer rim of the pit is the same as that figured in 1894, being by estimate eight hundred feet deep, one hundred and fifty feet in diameter at the bottom. A pit formed March 24th, in which no bottom can be seen. There is a steep vertical wall on the north side for three hundred feet down. On the south side the vertical wall extends about six hundred feet down, before com ing to the debris. At the opening of March 24th a loud noise was heard; a great cloud of dust arouse, produced probably by a slide.
Prior to the filling of the pit a dense cloud of smoke was pouring out of it. It ceased almost entirely after the slide. The heat-crack parallel with and four hundred feet distant from the north wall of Halemaumau has greatly increased in heat since December last when I last saw it. It is sizzling hot a foot back from the edge and shows a cherry red about twenty feet down. This is the first fire seen in the crater since June 24, 1897.
In June and July, 1899, I inspected the pit and its surround ings. Because of a constant dense cloud of steam and vapors the bottom could not be seen. In an opening a short distance to the north of the pit, it was possible to descend and observe the formation of small stalactites and incrustations of gypsum in a temperature suggestive of 140° F.; and an eighth of a mile farther northerly was a larger similar opening, though less hot. Paper could easily be ignited in cracks near by.
March 2, 1900. There was a breakdown filling the "bot tomless pit" and some fire. L. A. Thurston.
September. W. M. O'Shaughnessy. Smoke predominates Observed altitudes as follows: Where the road from the Vol cano House reaches the lava four hundred and sixty-five ; half way to Halemaumau, four hundred and fifteen ; higher edge of Halemaumau two hundred and seventy; depth of the pit not attainable.
June 6, 1901. A visitor lighted a stick in a crack some twelve feet down.
June 27. D. S. Jordan and party saw glowing lava deep down in one of the cracks.