_From the Galveston Daily News._
ORANGE, Tex., Feb. 21.--J. W. Link is filling in some low lots with
ashes and charcoal that he is hauling from the pit where A. Gilmer at
one time burned the slabs and refuse that came from his sawmill. The
mill was destroyed by fire Sept. 13, 1899. When the wagons commenced
hauling the mound of ashes was 20 feet high and nearly 40 feet in
diameter at the bottom, tapering as it went up.
To-day when the men had worked in about 15 feet, but before they had
reached the center of the heap, the teamsters discovered smoke issuing
from the charcoal as it was being brought in contact with the air.
One of them felt of his shovel and was startled to find it very hot.
He picked up a piece of charcoal and blew it with his breath, when it
developed into a blaze of fire. The experiment was repeated several
times to-day and each time the charred lump would become a live coal.
The ashes were about 16 feet thick that stood above the live coals, and
from the outer edge to where the hot ashes were first discovered, a
little above the ground the fine ashes were fully as thick.
No smoke has been seen to come from the big ash pile for nearly two
and a half years, and these coals have been in their present resting
place probably for a longer period, as the cone-shaped mound was much
larger when the mill was destroyed than it was at the time the wagons
commenced removing the ashes.
* * * * *
The Volcano of Kilauea is very active at present. The cavity produced
by the last breakdown has not filled up, but there is an active lake
200 to 300 feet below the general level of the floor and a quarter of a
mile in diameter.