I. The Crack in the Floor of the Pacific 165
II. Hawaiian Volcanoes 170
III. Volcanic Activity 177
IV. Changes in Kilauea Crater 189
V. Foundation of the Observatory 194
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Giant Tree Ferns on the Road to Kilauea Frontispiece
PAGE
Fire Fountains in Halemaumau, Kilauea 2
Lava Cave 16
Decked with Leis of Plumeria 24
Hibiscus 39
Mokuaweoweo, Mauna Loa (in eruption 1899) 44
Asa-Yama, Japan 52
Ice-crested Chimborazo (Ecuador, S.A.) 60
Mt. Shasta, California 70
Mt. Rainier, Washington 78
Mt. Shishaldin, Alaska 88
Mt. Katmai, Alaska 98
Sunset over Leahi 108
A Storm on Mount Haleakala 118
Lohiau 128
Two Maori Girls in Ancient Greeting 140
Twisted Lava at the Foot of Vesuvius 150
Smoke Column over Mt. Pelée 160
Kaimimiki 178
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory 194
Map of Hawaii 204
Note:—The great volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands on account of their
magnitude, gradual slope, character and location do not lend themselves
to interesting photography, as whatever is attempted must be done at
sea on swaying ships in rough channels some distance out and detail is
lost, hence the illustrations in this volume include many of the vast
craters forming the volcanic rim which surrounds that “Crack in the
Floor of the Pacific” over which the Hawaiian Islands are situated.
INTRODUCTION
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Of all the noteworthy groups of islands of fire rock in the Pacific
Ocean, the Hawaiian Islands are the most stupendous.
The crack in the floor of the ocean upon which they are built extends
from the large island Hawaii northwesterly about two thousand miles
toward Japan. The islands for the first four hundred miles are large
and mountainous, but as the chain is followed toward the end, the
islands quickly become mere bluffs rising out of the sea, or low coral
islands which have been built on the rims of submerged volcanoes.
It is interesting to note that the oldest, the smallest, and the lowest
of these islands lie nearest to Japan. One of these—Midway Island—is
used as the United States mid-Pacific cable station. Properly speaking,
the Hawaiian Island group should cover all the islands in this chain
two thousand miles long. The mountains of the large islands rise from
3,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea-level. Between this majestic range
of island mountains and the “Giants of the Rockies,” along the western
coast of the United States, lies a rough ocean valley abounding in
hills and deep ravines with an average depth under the sea-surface of
about 2,600 fathoms, or 15,600 feet.
We know very little about this valley save that its floor is covered
with evidences of volcanic action. Pumice and scoriæ appear to be
universally distributed on the bottom of the ocean. Red and gray, and
blue and green clays abound. The disintegration of pumice is given as
the chief source for the formation of this clayey matter. Sometimes the
deposits are permeated with meteoric or star dust.
As the ocean depths draw near the island coasts, they grow more and
more shallow and become a wonderful fairy-land into which the dreamer
looks from his floating canoe. Strange branching thickets of coral lie
below, sometimes fringed with moving seaweeds and exquisitely colored
sea-mosses, while through the coral and moss swim the marvellously
painted fish of a hundred varieties. Turning and twisting in and out of
coral caves are the spotted eels or the great pink or brown
anemone-headed sea-worms. Sea-urchins and star-fish crawl lazily along
the valleys and the uplands of the coral reef. The surface of the sea
is itself covered with ceaselessly moving waves reflecting a tropical
luxuriance of color. From well-known localities hundreds of fishermen
gather spoil for the sustenance of life for themselves and their
friends.
Wonderfully restful is the dream life of the winterless seas of the
coral caves, and yet even to-day fierce floods of boiling lava
sometimes find their way over the seashore and down over the reefs,
destroying the life of sea-moss and coral polyps, and surrounding
shells and fish and crawling slugs or swift-moving eels with floods of
turbid, boiling, death-dealing water in place of the clear waves
through which they had been accustomed to journey.
Each island has its individual extinct craters, but no island has any
form of hot geyser action such as characterizes the Yellowstone Park of
the United States, or the region around Rotorua, New Zealand. The
nearest approach to a geyser deposit such as abounds in central Mexico
is found on Molokai and around the small crater Leahi (Diamond Head),
near Honolulu. Leahi was evidently forced up through coral reefs and
the mighty heat produced small layers of geyser-like deposits.
The islands have been built up by lava alone. This lava rapidly falls
to pieces under the influence of sunlight and rain, thus permitting
plants, such as giant ferns, small shrubs and grasses, to take root.
These plants break up the fire-rock very rapidly and send seeds
broadcast to multiply soil-making activities. Thus a lava flow in a few
years becomes the foundation for a growing forest.
The fire-rock, breaking through the floor of the ocean to form the
Hawaiian chain of islands, lost its power first in the far northwest
and cooled and hardened from island to island until it is now making
its last appearance on the largest and most southeasterly of all the
group, the island known by the name Hawaii. Here is still to be found
what is called the largest active crater in the world, Kilauea, and the
sister crater, Mokuaweoweo, from which come the most voluminous lava
flows, the latest one being in May, 1916. Kilauea is about 4,000 feet
altitude, while Mokuaweoweo is nearly 10,000 feet higher and is on the
summit of Mauna Loa. Professor Jaggar, the experienced volcanologist in
charge of an observing station on the brink of Kilauea, accepts the
theory of a gas connection between these two craters so that their
activity is mutual as to foam vents, but not so close that the lower
volcano affords a hydrostatic outlet to the lava in the higher crater.
In this place it is well to note a fact which makes the scientific
study of the active fire-lake of living volcanoes a very valuable index
of coming events. Professor Jaggar says: “It has long been known that
the crust of our rocky globe rises and falls with a tide similar to
that of the ocean. From direct experiment professors of Chicago
University have recently proved a tidal movement in the solid earth up
and down of about a foot twice each day, and varying in amount through
the lunar month and the solar year. There is definitely a daily
movement marked in the lava level of the fire-pit of Kilauea, and there
is a marked semi-annual high level.” This scientific study of active
craters is still in its infancy and promises, as Professor Jaggar says,
“to create a new science in which we may hope at some not distant day
to predict the periods of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.”
The early Hawaiians incorporated in their legends various theories to
explain these great phenomena of nature, many of which are included in
this volume, especially those legends which cluster around Pele, the
great goddess of fire, and Hiiaka, her sister, goddess of lightning.
Other interesting legends relating to the once active but long extinct
crater Haleakala, on Maui, may be found in “Legends of Maui.”