Aug. 2. Lava rose thirty-five feet in the south lake in a few days.
Sept. 4. E. 0. Hall thinks the floor is five hundred to six hun dred feet higher than in 1837.
Sept. 8. Bottom of South lake fell fifty feet. W. H. Lentz. Oct. 2. Crater active. H. M. Whitney.
Oct. 9. Rev. W. P. Alexander says : "I visited this volcano forty-five years ago. It was much more active then than now." Dec. 21. Overflow witnessed. Fountains on the north side of Halemaumau three days later.
Jan. 1, 1878. Volcano very active. W. H. Lentz.
Jan. 18. Curtis J. Lyons calculated altitudes with an aneroid barometer. Foot of the road down to the crater and level of Halemaumau five hundred and three hundred and fifty feet be low Volcano House. Height of Uwekehuna six hundred and fifty feet above its base. Halemaumau four hundred feet long, one hundred feet wide. Lake Kilauea not approachable. Ex tensive flows of lava from it on the north side running N. N. E. for three-fourths of a mile. Present height of cone estimated at one hundred and seventy-five feet.
June 8. Two flows between the old north and the present south lake.
June 28. Rev. L. H. Hallock. "A surging mass of lava, dashing like surf against the walls of Halemaumau and throwing gory clots high over the ledges, with Pele's hair streaming in the whiffs of rising gas, accompanied by a roaring like that of the sea, was the never-to-be-forgotten experience of our day at the volcano." Sept. 20. J. Mott Smith. "In my former visits, 1851, 1856, 1862, I saw no display of fire to compare with what is now seen. The floor of crater much changed and elevated. Whole floor is in constant motion rising and subsiding by turns." Nov. 24. Very active ; lava within twelve feet of the top of the bank.
Jan. 7, 1879. H. M. Whitney. Two lakes now as formerly, lava nearly up to the brim but not overflowing; lava breaks out on the sides and fills up the center. By night fires seen in every part of the crater. Some parts of the hill surrounding south lake as high as the south wall of Kilauea.
Jan. 8. Wm. Gardner. South lake with lava fifty feet below the rim and boiling like water.
There was at this time one large lake enclosed by a crag wall twenty feet above the fire. These crags increased till April, be corning four hundred and fifty feet high. Fire now less than forty feet from the top. Lentz said to have counted three hun dred and seventeen different points from which fire was bursting at one time. Reported by Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming.
The eruption came April 21. The bottom dropped out on this date. W. H. Lentz.
Dr. Coan, in a letter of June 20, said that the lake, which had been overflowing its banks and whose rim had been raised till it was nearly as high as the outer wall, was suddenly emptied by an underground discharge and subsided several hundred feet, leav ing nothing but a "smoking basin." April 28. Almost extinct ; some vapors. A. 0. Forbes.
The fire returned very soon. June 24 W. H. Lentz states that both lakes were active ; jets of lava, appearing like a fountain of fire from the Volcano House were thrown up. William Tregloan writes that on July 2d the two lakes had become one, of enormous size, throwing lava to the height of fifty feet. July 14, Lentz re ports a flow of lava extending over one-eighth of the entire bot tom. The sulphur banks on the southeast side caught fire. A large part of the bank of south lake fell in. The bottom of Keana kakoi is covered by a smooth black lava, very fresh looking, which is supposed to have been ejected at about this time. The faulted block let down upon the northern side of this pit must have reached its present position at an earlier date.
In October, Miss C. F. Gordon Cummings visited Kilauea. She represented that after the discharge of April 21 a wall of blocks or crags rose around Halemaumau to the height of three hundred and sixty to four hundred feet. October 27 there were fiery waves tossing over this lake. Two days later she climbed "six hundred feet" of these rough blocks and was disappointed at not seeing much liquid lava, though fire was visible in the inside cup, and fountains shot out horizontally from the base of the crags. She figures several large spiracles in the midst of the lakes.
Dec. 2. H. G. Kelley could find no flowing lava. Long sticks thrust down in crevices would ignite.
Jan. 5, 1880. T. J. Kinnear figures a lava lake on the edge of a bench with a pile of old lava below. Fire flowed in a succes sion of waves across the entire lake.
April 1. Crater not very active.
April 23. A. G. Low. Lava flowing to thickness of two or three feet.
May 18. J. M. Alexander saw Halemaumau four hundred feet broad throwing lava seventy-five feet high, while south lake and a new lake were forming. The path taken became impassable by fumes of vapors.
June 28. First visit of L. A. Thurston.