Show I TI TId d Q o u Y 11 9 1 At l Q r J t W yoS IS I S G Iv Of Iru I I II Why Science Fears Another outburst of the Volcano Where Pele Was Believed to Live Lave With Her Dreadful t ta i q qt iJ a Dragon of 47 the Human S1 Sacrifices 1 Y l k t a 4 V Vt So for years Jears many a lovely girl plunged plunged into into those fiery jaws of death will willingly sacrificing ing her life in the belief that by so doing ati she was saving her fellow countrymen from y yv v destruction I f d 1 tyM let r 5 t cr M a r I I 3 I II i I f fT T I II I If I ITi gT r i sL y Ti t r I I h hr f s i r The fire file pot of Kilauea known as the House of Everlasting Everlasting- Fires a lake of mo ten lava which continually boils and ad bubbles 4 r J t with of flame and unearthly noises v-q v 0 t I 7 t 2 n quite recent years the UNTIL superstitiouS natives nab of Hawaii lIa believed that Pele the Goddess of Fire dwelt in m the volcanic crater of Kilauea guarded by a huge dragon whose eyes mouth and nose spouted fire I h like e the volcano itself Unless the goddess's wrath Hath was as free fre- frequently fre frequently I quen ly appeased by feeding her dragon dragona a young and beautiful maiden malden it was wasI I I reI thought she would take an awful re- re revenge re revenge by turning loose on the island the tho thoI I volcano's flood of molten lava So for years many a lovely girl plunged into those fiery jaws of death willingly sacrificing her bet life in m the belief be- be lief lief that she was saving her fellow coun coun- countrymen countrymen countrymen from destruction Nobody now believes es in the Goddess of Fire Fare and her dragon but the crater where here they were supposed to live livo reo re- remains re remains mains an object of dread In fact many scientists predict that both Kilauea and its companion crater Mauna Loa are due for one of the most terrible explosions explosions in m their history Recent and tumults of lava la in the two craters are thought to tobe tobe tobe be warnings of an outburst Within the tho thelast thelast last few weeks there have been tremendous 1 r dous done earthquakes in Chile and Japan and mighty tidal waves which are en- en engendered en engendered gendered by seismic disturbances under the ocean have swept the shores of Nippon The bed of the Pacific Is a evidently troubled and it is beneath that ocean floor that the reservoirs of fire which supply the two big Hawaiian volcanoes are located Their craters are two t enormous pots of fire about twenty miles apart Mauna MaunaLoa MaunaLoa MaunaLoa Loa shows signs of activity only occa occa- occasionally occasionally Kilauea on the other hand IS always busy buny its lake of liquid lava sometimes rising high up n In n the pot and throwing fountains of flame hundreds r of feet into the air while at other times the monstrous receptacle seems almost to empty itself of its contents What starts them off It has been a mystery but now scientists believe they ha e solved it at least so EO far as Kilauea is concerned u as ant n x r rv v The sun and anda a fi ark 5 4 s A Athe p 1 nr the moon gov gov- govern gova a a t ern Kilauea's activities When W hen both of those fit fiti y i heavenly bodies a happen to be so soo 4 situated in ro- ro relation lation to earth that the O t Y s pull of their ar R jOint attraction attractions r r s away from i r J i the Hawaiian island It counteracts f m gravity and a flood of s lava from the depths A charm beneath the mountains pours ing Hawa an look upward A trigger effect k landscape r a ing from Hilo to It is called Sun and moon moan joining their forces ward the snowcap snow pull the trigger and goes th the of Mauna Kea I h ft me gun eIght or ten miles males below the level of the sea bottom perhaps is a vast reservoir of molten rocks The crater is simply the mouth of a gigantic chimney runs down to that reservoir To liken the chimney to a gun is not inapt Doubtless the two chimneys of Kilauea and Mauna Loa run down to the same the the samo basin of fire When the lava ava rises rise's rises in one crater it rl rises ris es also in m the other But the themore themore themore more vehement outbursts of Kilauea are not usually accompanied by any dot cor cor corresponding responding activity on the part of Mauna Loa and when the latter starts trouble Kilauea does not as a rule fol- fol follow follow fol follow low suit Why Nobody knows It It is isone Isone isone one of many ninny unsolved puzzles that re- re relate relate re relate late to burning mountains Not so very great a length of Am Im ime ago as geologists view it there was no Hawaiian archipelago But there came camo camoa camoa a day when great vents opened in the floor of the sea and out of them then poured molten rocks in such quantity as to build d huge mountains The sea floor was over three miles below the surface waves of the Pacific and the mountains thus created cree cre- cre created were tall taIl enough to erect peaks to toan to toan toan an additional height of more than two miles It It was thus that the archipelago came into being Its islands are the tops of mighty volcanoes that stand tand on the floor of the s sea a Yet the island of Hawaii alone which is the big one of the group has bas an area exceeding square miles It is built of the eruptive erupt dis- dis discharges discharges dis discharges charges of a bunch of five volcanoes two of which are Kilauea and Mauna Maunn Loa Imagine the tremendousness of the awe awe- awesome awesome awesome some spectacle presented when hen the building was in progress I Consider Mauna Maun Loa It is a dome feet high and seventy four by three three fifty miles in its diameters rs at sea sealevel sealevel sealevel level But that is only what the eye sees of it It extends downward over three miles further to the ocean floor If the Pacific were dried up it would ap- ap appear appear ap appear pear as a topped round-topped cone more than five and a half halt miles in height and miles wide at the base The fire pot of Kilauea 2000 feet in diameter j i 9 called or the House of Everlasting Fire It con con- con contains tams a lake of molten lava which con con- continually con continually boils and bubbles with of flame and unearthly nisei Tha depth of the lake below the nm the I rim c con con- constantly con constantly l changes its surface sometimes rIsing and sometimes falling Occa Ocea- Occasionally ly Iona one might imagine that the bot out leaving tho tom was as about to drop pot empty of fire tire But is a mere hole In Inthe inthe inthe the midst of an expanse of nearly acres of shiny black hiack hardened and cracked lava encircled by grim abrupt cliffs feet high wh which ch form the rim of the original and ancient crater That was the huge mouth of the original vol volcanic canic conic pipe which leading down dawn into anto the towels bowels of the earth brought up and dc- dc de de ed in a molten state all the material that built the mighty moun moun- mountain mountain mountain tain For the as mountain mountain as may be said of til Il other volcanoes volcanoes-is volcanoes Is is simply an pile ash ash- pile erected about a central chimney Viewing Ing the Hawaiian group one is appalled by the truly monstrous scale on which in a former age nature in fiery mood must have raged in li that mid mid- raid Pacific Pacific region On Maul Maui the island next to Hawaii and northwest of the latter may be seen the largest extinct volcanic crater in the world called world called by the native Hawaiians the House House of the nun Sun un Its rim measures twenty-one twenty mil nul miles a around and the city of Boston could be placed inside of it In many parts puts of th the world volcanoes operate inight be said in batteries a number of them evidently having f chimneys that lead down n to the same subterranean reservoir of fire Such groups are found on the Alaskan Penin Penin- Peninsula Peninsula sula in the he he Aleutian Chain Cham in the Caribbean region where Mount Pel e is b isone bone Isone one member of a series scattered about on an islands and in Java In the Mediterranean i Vesuvius Strom- Strom Strom-boli Strom boll boli and Etna compose a battery of the lund kind and when one of them starts trouble the others are likely to erupt But Kilauea and Mauna Lon Loa seem to draw their fiery supplies from a magma basin a as geologists call It exclusively their awn own and unconnected with any other The theory now accepted by most though geologists though it cannot be said to tobe tobe tobe be proved proved-Is proved is that volcanoes in general do not derive their tiles files front Irom a molten core of the earth but from igneous res- res reservoirs res reservoirs not more than eight or ten miles s below the surface crust Why such res- res reserVOirs reservoirs res reservoirs should be scattered about hero here and there beneath the skin of the terres terres- terrestrial terrestrial terrestrial trial globe is not very ert satisfactorily ex- ex explained ex explained though one suggestion offered is that they may be hot spots left over from the general cooling of the planet Where volcanoes are concerned there are aro areso areso so many unsolved puzzles that anybody has aright to a n few guesses Kilauea's last great explosion n was as in Inthe inthe the tho year 1789 1759 when it wiped out a large part of al a an 1 army decided a political quarrel united the Hawaiian Islands In one monarchy set a king on the throns thron and established a royal dynasty which ruled the archipelago until we grabbed It a a 0 century later Up to that time the Islands had been governed in m quasi-feudal quasi fashion by a 1 number of independent chiefs one of whom at the period above mcl was a 11 young man named Kamehameha clever clever ambitious and ruthless His barony so to call it was in m the south southwestern western part Bart of Hawaii He was strive striving striving ing to obtain over the whole of that big island and nd beyond that the kingship of the tho entire archipelago This was promised him by the priests as a reward for building a 11 stone temple dedi- dedi dedicated dedi dedicated to the god sod of earthquakes K Ku Who the Who the His Hid principal rival and adversary was wasa wasa wasa a chief named Keoua who contemplating ing a surprise attack marched an army from Hilo on the t the east cast side of U The trail ran over the mountains close clos I t r sly x xI R I p yys A r t a 5 w a a aad ad y k a aS S b 4 s TI TIA A r t r rd d Giant cross which is erected during Holy Week every year on the extinct volcano Punch bowl au as it looks by searchlights l l past the crater of oC KI Kilauea allea where here on a cliff overlooking the fiery pit stood an ancient temple of Pete Pele the goddess of the volcanic realms who was as supposed to reside be neath the crater The army moved in three divisions While It was as on the march Kilauea suddenly broke ont with Ith a tremendous eruption The day became becane black as night the darkness illuminated by the awful red and blue glare of nit bv the nit Earthquakes shook the tho mountain and intense lightning with crashes of thun thunder der lent lent additional additional horror to the scene Presently a mm ram of incandescent cinders began to fall To Tb go back baA seemed as perilous aj ae as to proceed so the army hurried on onA on A few of the men in m the first division on ve f e burned to death by the cinders When the thud division came along arong ft it t saw caw the themen themen themen men of the s second cond division apparently resting on the descending slope of the mountain some of them lying p do others in m seated posture But as was wasI I soon discovered all aU of them were dead dead They had been suffocated by vo volcanic canic gases and not one of them was left alive Naturally this resulted resulted in an almost complete demoralization of Keoua's Keoua forces Furthermore the idea spread t ti t the Goddess Pele displeased by the the attempt to march a military force past her temple had caused the eruption as a 1 pUnishment The disaster was follo followed cd by the murdel of Keoua and nd Kamehameha eha became king Ling of all the islands and the founder of the dynasty whose la last t e Queen was as ou ousted ted from from the throne by the govern govern- government government men ment of the United States Tho The soldiers who perished on the tho mountain lay where they felland fell and were never buried bUrled Some of f f their bones may still be seen there scattered about Their actual footprints where their byre feet squashed up the volcanic mud since hardened to stone are arc shown to tourists who in m these modern days VISit the crater of Kilauea Close Cloge Clo e by the rim of Kilauea's crater they are boring for volcanic steam hop hop- hoping hoping hoping ing to make use of it for power Up to dater they have penetrated only bo bolt t feet It lg i is a a- a tough job for the tha rock IS of the hardest kind basalt kind basalt To liar liar- harness ness liar ness a volcano is an e Idea and It has gained encouragement from the tho successful employment of volcanic steam in Italy Italy Last summers summer with the same sonic aim in view borings were begun on the island of Vulcan which is one of the Lipari group group northeast of Sl Sicily lly That island is highly volcanic and once in a while whale goes bust in a way that IS la rattier rather alarming to its few inhabitants As for forthe forthe forthe the boring enterprise gren great t hopes Il are re entertained but what will Bill III como come of ii 1 cannot be known for a awhile yet et ft |