March 1, 1872. Kilauea visited by Clarence King and A. Hague. King says : "A fluid stream of basalt overflowed from the molten lake at the south end of the crater and flowed north ward along the level basaltic floor of the pit. Numerous little brancblets spurted from the sides of the flow * * * and then congealed. I repeatedly broke these small branch streams and ex amined their section. In every case the bottom of the flow was thickly crowded with triclinic feldspars and augites; while the whole upper flow was nearly pure isotropic and acid glass." Charles Darwin had previously made a similar statement about the development of minerals in the lower portions of volcanic flows.
March 20. J. Kavanagh. Quiet for six months. Four fis sures have opened in which there is fire, which occasionally spurts out.
April 26. F. C. Autridge. Seven cones pouring forth smoke ; their interior a vast gulf of fire. Stalactites hang from the roof of the dome.
Aug. 4. Visit of Samuel Kneeland. Feels rewarded for the exertions made to come so far, the volcano being moderately active.
August, 1872. A year earlier Halemaumau was a deep cavity, but had filled up and is now overflowing into the basin of 1868. T. Coan.
Oct. 21. D. H. Hitchcock says Halemaumau is like what it was from 1845 to 1868, an immense dome six hundred feet higher than the center of the pit, equalling in altitude the bordering black ledges. On its summit are the two lakes from which lava streams down in various directions. Nothing is left of the high banks surrounding the old south lake.
Nov. 26. W. P. Ragsdale says lava has been flowing to the foot of the west bank, (Uwekahuna), and is now proceeding from the south lake in a covered canal towards the north end. Pours over the bank in a cataract of fire.
Dec. 11-16. Grand flows ; unusually fine.
March 3d, 1873, Mr. Nordhoff reports that the great lake had been divided by a low ledge of lava into two parts ; each body having a diameter of five hundred feet, circular, separated by a low lying ridge, and the two together surrounded by a wall eighty feet high. The surface of the first lake had a gray color. Molten lava was repelled from the borders to the center, then flinging aloft fiery waves as much as thirty feet, followed by a hissing sound. Fiery rings were constantly being pushed towards the center, piling up lava fifteen feet above the general level. The
second lake was agitated more violently, spending its fury upon the southern bank. The cliff was undermined for one hundred and fifty feet from which the waves were repelled with a dull heavy roar. The word terrible best represented the character of the agitation. The heat back of the bank was almost insup portable : a hot draught came from the cracks behind, charged with sulphur. Still farther back were several cones. These com menced as small vents through which lava is ejected and by a secretion built up pipes twenty to thirty feet long, open at the top and ruined by violent explosions. Inside was the molten lava, and stalactites yet in the formative stage waved in the wind. The cooled surface was extremely thin.
In January, 1874, Miss Isabella L. Bird, represented that the lake had an irregular shape five hundred feet long, divided in two, with banks thirty-five to forty feet high. June 4th the rock about the lake has risen much, and the precipitous walls were thought to be eighty feet high. Six hundred feet from the lake there was a blowing cone, like a beehive, twelve feet high, forty feet deep inside, with walls two feet thick. It was throwing up jets and clots of lava with a deafening roar and subterranean noises. Halemaumau was on a hilltop. Eleven fire fountains danced around the lake, half of them combining into one thirty feet high at the center. A cone lower down discharged lava intermittently. The same month, Mr. J. M. Lydgate presented a rough sketch of the caldera to the Government Survey, from which is derived the restoration presented in Plate 33. The two lakes of the previ ous observers appear—and the area of the lower pit formed in 1868 well shown. The black ledge was quite extensive and prob ably at the same level as in i868.
July 8. D. H. Hitchcock says the crater is filling up with fresh lava, hut the floor is sinking more and more as a whole. Halemaumau has half the height of the lower or southern lake. Two earthquake shocks were recorded for July TO.
Sept. 3. R. Whitman and B. F. Dillingham saw the south lake moderately active.
Sept. To. Lava broke through the crust in the eastern edge of the basin and flowed rapidly westward, spreading over several acres. It was all done in two hours. C. E. Stackpole.