KILAUEA IN 1824.
In 1824 Kilauea was visited by E. June i6th, who came from the southwest. After reaching a point two miles from the crater he was annoyed by smoke blowing in his face, accom panied by sulphur fumes. The air, too, was filled with fine par ticles of sand, rendering it necessary to protect his face from their impact ; and the surface of the ground was covered by it, his feet sinking into it six or eight inches at every step. From crevices five miles west of the crater smoke was issuing, and occasionally the forced ejection was great enough to produce an irregular hiss ing sound. At the southwest end of the volcano the smoke was so dense that little could be seen, and farther on much rain fell. He took the road on the east side. From two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet below the edge was a level platform, ex tending entirely around the crater, which was evidently the "black ledge" of Ellis. This platform was fifteen rods wide where he descended, probably near the "sulphur banks" as now designated. He had little difficulty in reaching the black ledge. Having now descended six hundred feet ,Mr. Loomis walked upon the lower
platform whose surface was smooth, though not level, rising in heaps like cocks of hay and broken by innumerable fissures.
The lava was black, porous like pumice, and traversed by crevices emitting very hot steam. Proceeding eight or ten rods he reached another escarpement of two hundred or three hundred feet deep leading to the floor of the most active portion, from which smoke and flames of fire were issuing. There seemed to be small craters (spiracles) where the fire burst forth attended by a horrid noise. He was quite disappointed in not finding this lowest platform a mass of liquid fire, as it had been the year previ ous. The surface had become hard, and he presumed he could have walked over it safely but he did not descend to it as the sides were too steep to allow of a comfortable passage. This record is quite important, as it shows a period of comparative quiet at the center of eruption following the intense activity reported by Ellis in the previous year.