Fig. 7. Panorama of Mokuaweoweo
From U. S. Geological Survey
Fig. 8. View of the Crater of Kilauea from the Volcano House
From U. S. Geological Survey
During his visit to this great pit, Captain Dutton succeeded in climbing down the almost vertical walls on the side of the crater, and, reaching the surface of the hardened lake, walked over it. It must have required no little courage to thus venture on the thin floor of a lake which he knew was filled to great depths with red hot boiling lava, for he was walking over the surface of a slumbering volcano, that might at almost any moment awaken, and opening, swallow him and his companions. Through enormous cracks in the floor, he could feel the heat from the molten mass, while, through the same openings came suggestive whiffs of sulphur vapor.
During the eruption of this mountain, on January 23d, 1859, the light from the glowing lava streams was bright enough to read fine print at Hilo, a distance of thirty-five miles.
During the eruption of 1852, a stream of white-hot lava was thrown up into the air from one of the fissures to a height of from 300 to 400 feet.
Stones and Lava Thrown Upwards—Eruption of Mokuaweoweo, Hawaii, July 4-21, 1899
From a Stereograph, Copyright, by Underwood & Underwood