THE RENEWED ACTIVITY OF 1908.
Nov. 30, 1907. Lycurgus says, "Volcano active again after a quiet of seven months. A little cone with flame issuing. Was not persistent." Dec. 7, 1907. W. A. Wall figures the black ledge at the depth of four hundred and fifty feet, the lower pit two hundred feet wide at the top, and fire eighty feet below.
February, 1908. Cone emitting fire. Florence Gurney. March 20. C. N. Towle pictures streams of lava flowing in both directions from a cone, till they meet on the opposite side. March 17-25. J. W. Waldron. Pit three hundred feet deep, 1,800 feet across. Cone in northwest corner spouting noisily. 19th. Cone blew off its top and threw out lava.
20th. Cone blows off again, and river of lava flowed around the edge of the bottom.
Large flow from the fractured cone.
April 18. G. W. Kinkaldy. Cone thirty feet high with three orifices sending off spray and lava ; sounds like musketry. Lake traversed by red lines.
April 25. E. S. Aldrich. Bottom of pit risen to one hundred and fifty feet. Agitated by whirlpools of flowing lava and foun tains seventy-five feet high.
May 26. L. A. Thurston estimates the pit to be two hundred feet deep. Lake eight hundred by four hundred feet, shape of figure eight with a crescent shaped island. More activity than at the breakdown of March II, 1894. The island seventy-five feet long. After each outburst of gas a tremendous suction draws lava from a radius of one hundred feet into a maelstrom ; cakes of lava fifteen to twenty feet in diameter turned upon edge and dis appearing. A great spring to the north pours out lava copiously. Lake enlarging constantly. Glare visible from Hilo and Honuapo.
June zo. Visit of Secretary Garfield. More than one hundred persons in the party.
June 21. The same depth as on May 26, but the lake is fifty per cent. larger.
July 14. Rev. W. S. Westervelt says the boiling pit has filled up from twenty to twenty-five feet in the previous fortnight.
July 26. E .D. Baldwin. It is one hundred and ninety feet down to the lake from the edge of the pit. See Plate 44B.
July 31. Fire in three-fourths of the pit of Halemaumau. Eight large fountains.
Mr. C. L. Rhodes has described very graphically what he saw August 13 to 15. The molten lava has accumulated in the large pit from one thousand to about one hundred and fifty feet below the rim, a liquid conical column, broadest at the base. The foun tain of supply is from Old Faithful, a small area near the north side. About a third of the surface is never blackened over. This lava has been building up a wall around itself, which on the 13th inst. was fifteen feet higher than the outer zone of the liquid, so that the lake might be compared to an inverted saucer. At length the lateral pressure overcame the strength of the wall, and the lava flowed out in great streams until it tended to even up the surface. The lava may sometimes be higher at its border than it is nearer the center.
Plate 46 shows a rough plan and photograph of the lava, as seen in August.
August 18. N. B. Emerson. The fire-pit bounded by a ver tical wall two hundred feet high; 1,000-1,200 feet in diameter. Fire-lake occupies from one-half to two-thirds of the pit, bordered by a sloping black ledge between it and the walls. Lake usually covered by scales of dark lava traversed by many fire lines, not clear cut, but jagged like fish bones. Fire Fountains. "Old Faith ful" described. A jet of red lava appears ; scales are sucked down around it. This swells up as one huge rotund white hot mass leaping high up into the air for many seconds, and then subsides as if there were a connection with a fire-shaft deep into the earth's interior. This is in the northeast part of the lake. There are others in the northern quarter and near the edge, never so large as Old Faithful. Fire-lines suggest the arms of Octopus. Fire caves or ovens on the west side. Action like surf breaking upon the side of a cliff, somewhat rythmic. Movement from west to east. In 1881 there were three fire-lakes and a correspondingly greater action.