VISIT OF LORD BYRON.
In the year 1825, July 28th, a party from the "Blonde" visited the crater, Lord George Anson Byron being the leader. Others were Rev. C. C. Stewart and Lieut. Malden, the historians, and R. Dampier, the artist.
The lint used by the company was situated upon the narrow plain between Kilauea and Kilauea iki. It had been erected a year or two earlier for the accommodation of Kapiolani. Lieut. 1VIalden calculated the height of the upper cliff, Uwekahuna, to be nine hundred feet above the black ledge, and the depth of the lower pit at six hundred feet, a total of 1,50o feet. The circum ference of the edge of the black ledge was from five to seven miles and that of the top from eight to ten miles.
Mr. Stewart speaks of the black ledge as a kind of gallery, in some places only a few feet, in others many rods wide. The gulf below contains as many as sixty small conical craters, many in constant action. The tops and sides of two or three of these are covered with sulphur, showing mingled shades of yellow and green. The upper cliffs on the northern and western sides are of a red color. Those on the eastern side are less precipitous and are largely composed of sulphur. The south end was wholly ob scured by smoke which was impenetrable. The chief seat of action seemed to be at the southwestern end (Halemaumau). To the north of this is one of the largest of the smaller craters—one hundred and eighty feet high—an irregularly shaped inverted funnel of lava covered with clefts, orifices and tunnels, from which bodies of steam escaped with deafening explosion, while pale flames, ashes, stones and lava were propelled with equal force and noise from its ragged and yawning mouth.
On the evening of the following day (29th) after terrific noises and tremblings of the ground, "a dense column of heavy black smoke was seen rising from the crater directly in front of us— the subterranean struggle ceased—and immediately afterwards flames burst from, a large cone, near which we had been in the morning, and which then appeared to have been long inactive.
Red-hot stones, cinders and ashes, were also propelled to a great height with immense violence ; and shortly after the molten lava came boiling up, and flowed down the sides of the cone and over the surrounding scoriae, in two beautifully curved streams." At the same time a lake of molten lava two miles in circumference made it appearance.
Rev. Artemas Bishop, in December, states that the pit was not so deep as in 1823 at the time of Ellis' visit by as much as four hundred feet. There were also lakes of lava, frequently discharg ing gusts of vapor and smoke with great noise. As an evidence of oft repeated eruptions from. Kilauea, the natives remarked to Mr. Bishop, that after rising a little higher the lava would dis charge itself towards the sea through some subterranean aperture.
Rev. Mr. Stewart visited Kilauea again in October, 1829. The lower pit had been filled up more than two hundred feet, and there was more fire at the northern end. Many of the cones had dis appeared, but he was greatly interested in two of them—each one about twenty feet high—tapering from a point above to a base sixty feet in circumference. They were hollow, with steam, vapors and flame issuing from crevices and roaring so as to merit the appellation of "blow holes," or "spiracles," as named by G. Poulett Scrope.