Early in October Mr. Coan states that the lower pit of 1868 had been filled up about two hundred feet, and the mass about Halemaumau had "become a tumulated elevation nearly as high as the southern brim of the crater." In December Mr. J. W. Nicols of the British Transit of Venus Expedition reports sev eral important features. There were four lava lakes, the largest six hundred feet long, in which seven or eight fountains were playing near the edges. One of the lakes filled to the brim, while the others were surrounded by walls. The cone about the whole area was about seventy feet high.
Dec. 8, 1874. H. M. Whitney draws a rough plan of the lakes with a new nomenclature, which was adhered to for some time. The more southern lake was called Halemaumau, three hundred feet across. Eight hundred feet to the north was Lake Kilauea, five to six hundred feet long and three hundred across. The larger diameter of the depression was about five hundred feet. Adjacent to Halemaumau there had been a third lake, active two years earlier, but now closed up. The height of the north wall was one hundred and twenty feet.
Feb. 2, 1875. F. J. Scott draws a similar plan, and witnessed a great gush from Lake Kilauea.
Feb. 19. W .D. Alexander saw action in Lakes Halemaumau and Kilauea.
Feb. 26. Prof. Joseph Moore of Richmond, Indiana, said that Halemaumau was full and overflowing: and there were four lakes in action.
Aug. 7. There were two severe earthquake shocks.
A party from the English Challenger Expedition report the lakes Halemaumau and Kilauea as unusually active. There were five jets playing in the first, and the same number of inferior importance in the second. The lava rose and then subsided in the first. A small cone between the two blows jets of lava from thirty-five to forty feet. A lava cascade poured to the northeast of the second lake. Spectroscopic observations gave a continu ous spectrum, the red being the brightest and an occasional flame in the green. Magnetic observations proved the presence of con siderable iron.
Sept. 3. More active than for a long time.
Sept. 6. W. M. Gibson writes that Lake Kilauea had risen about ninety feet. Streams flowed from Halemaumau and Kilauea-iki into Lake Kilauea ; also to the southeast. He could see from the Volcano House lava jets leaping above the banks ; so that the lava must have risen a hundred feet during his visit.
Jan. 14, 1876. Lake Kilauea sent forth a broad stream into the caldera for four hours.
Feb. 22. Both lakes in full activity. A. 0. Forbes.
April 20. Cascade of lava into a pit seventy-five feet to the south of lake. River from below cliff ; both streams of short duration.
May 2. D. H. Hitchcock. Halemaumau has built itself up two hundred feet in one year. Lava from the south lake has al most filled up the great central depression. Six streams running down Halemaumau all night.
July 9. Lava streams running four miles per hour. T. K. Noble.
Aug. 25. E. H. Butler of Hobart, Tasmania, and others. Lakes full to overflowing, covering fifty acres on the west side. Waves of fire continually leaping twenty-five feet into the air.
Jan. 1, 1877. W. P. Toler compares present conditions with those prevailing in 1843 and 1845. Then the bottom was four hundred feet lower than it is now. Then the lake was ten to fifteen feet below its banks ; now it is depressed for two hundred feet in a cone that is one hundred and eighty feet high. Then the activity was in the lakes ; now the lava flows over a hardened surface. Then there was only one lake ; now there is a depres sion of two hundred feet where a second one has existed, though now extinct. Much rock has fallen from the high cliffs. He can now read newspapers by the light of the fires, upon the north bank.
May 4. Large party found "more activity than has been seen since i868." Nineteen earthquake shocks during the evening. Plenty of subterranean fire and some flowing lava.
May 6. S. B. Dole reports the formation of a fissure extend ing from the floor through the bank and into the woods beyond, just before his arrival. Lava spouted from this crevice fifty to one hundred and fifty feet into the air. Halemaumau drained. Estimated depth of hole at two hundred and fifty feet.
May 8. H. M. Whitney finds this opening and gathered tresses of Pele's hair twenty inches long.
May 21. T. E. Cook found a place one and a half miles south east from the Volcano House, where lava had come out of a crevice some two hundred feet below the top. These last three observations may point to Keanakakoi. Pea Wilkes, with his father, witnessed an eruption at Keanakakoi in 1877, which may be the same with that mentioned by Mr. Cook. The whole floor was a bubbling, boiling mass sending surges from side to side. The heat was so great that they could approach it only on the windward side.