KILAUEA IN 1907.
Jan. 27, 1907, F. S. Dodge reports that the lava had filled up the pit to the level of four hundred and fifty feet from the top, occupying an area of nine acres. Plate 44B is copied from a plan made by E. D. Baldwin, Dec. 26, 1906, showing the appearances then visible, and the relative positions of Halemaumau in 1886, 1892 and 1906. And upon one side the pit of Dec. 2, with its two lakes, the filling up to four hundred and fifty feet, Jan. 27, 1907, and up to one hundred and ninety feet as seen July 26, 1908.
Hon. L. A. Thurston spent a month in Hawaii, and under date of April 23, reports as follows in the Hawaiian Gazette concern ing the volcano : I visited the crater three times. It is more active than it has been at any time since the formation of the present pit in July, 1894. The pit has filled to within about three hundred and fifty feet of the top. There is a molten lake about four hundred feet long by two hundred feet wide. During the interval between II A. M. and 3 P. M. one day, about ten days ago, this lake over flowed its banks bodily, three times, the congealed lava crust being swept over the banks in a crimson flood, the surface of the lake rising and overflowing in a mass approximately one hundred feet wide. In addition to this there were from two to ten molten lava flows continuously issuing from the banks and flowing to the lower portion of the pit. At the present rate of filling, the Hale maumau pit, which was nearly a thousand feet deep three years ago, will be filled within the year, and the condition which existed in 1894, a molten lake higher than the surrounding country, will be repeated.
May 21st and 22d, the volcano was inspected by the Congres sional party which visited the Islands under the auspices of the Territorial Government. Twenty-eight members of Congress with their friends had accepted the hospitalities of the islands. Pele was in one of her quiescent moods, but the scene was im pressive and grand enough to satisfy their anticipations. A novel experience consisted in the serving of a dinner to the visitors where toothsome viands had been cooked by the heat supplied from the depths. After the dinner the health of Madame Pele was proposed by Hon. L. A. Thurston, who recited the legend and described the varied vagaries of the volcano. The numerous citations in this book from Mr. Thurston's statements prove that no one could better narrate the history of the volcano than he.
May 28. Demosthenes Lycurgus reports signs of fire, which in creased by July I0 to be a lake of fire boiling furiously seventy five by seventy-five feet. It rose over the pit floor and flowed down in a cataract. Continued to rise and fall every twenty-five minutes.
July 12. F. M. 'Wetmore saw two lava flows ,three active foun tains and a cone sending out a flame like a Roman candle.
Aug. 29. "It is the pit of hell," I said. "Yes," said Cart wright, "it is the pit of hell. Let us go down." "And we went down."—Jack London.