A Visit to See the Goddess, “Madam Pele”

A VISIT TO SEE THE GODDESS, "MADAM PELE." BY 0. C. JONES, OF THE SOUTH HAWAII CONFERENCE. Recently it was my privilege, in company with Elders E. J. Neff and E. W. Smith of Salt Lake City, and Elder L. W. Farr of Dgden, to view one of the grandest and most magnificent displays that has been seen at the Kilauea crater, during late years. And thinking that a partial description of our trip and what we saw while there might perhaps be interesting to some of the Era's readers, I feel \t\ a duty to comply with the request made by the Era some time ago for missionaries laboring in the field to con- tribute to its columns, by sending an account of the trip together with a few kodak pictures illustrating it. We started from the beautiful little seaport town of Hilo,and rode a distance of twenty-two miles, on a railroad train which car- ried us through one of the largest fields of sugar cane to be found on the Hawaiian islands . There were thousands of acres of well- formed sugar cane, as far as the eyes could see on every side. Above the cane belt we entered a great forest of "ohia" trees where is to be found some of Uncle Sam's richest and best timber lands. Arriving at Glen wood, the twenty-two mile station, we left the train and started out to walk the remaining distance of nine miles to the Volcano house, a commodious hotel which stands on the very brink of the great crater. The road along which we walked is one of the best on the Islands, and its scenery is beauti- ful. With great, tall forest trees on either side and climbing vines and a dense growth of tropical plants among the trees; with wild

574 IMPROVEMENT ERA. berries and roses all along the way; with grasses and ferns matted in everywhere and the sweet bird songsters singing in the forest, one is led to remark that Hawaii is indeed a beautiful land, and well deserves to be called the "Paradise of the Pacific." The road led us gradually up the mountain side and at eleven , o'clock we found ourselves in the Volcano house at an elevation ^^dki^jL .: '^ ^^-"S* ,^uttKKM >,; '. r-.V' ^ '' 1 -..• • T- , .,-' i^- Part of the Interior of an Extinct Crater. The Walls of the Crater are 1,000 Feet High. of more than 4,000 feet above sea-level. Arriving there we en- gaged rooms, refreshed ourselves, and were soon ready to visit the greatest active volcano in the world, and the only one that can be visited and seen at close range without endangering one's life. Some of you may have the idea that volcanoes exist only at

A VISIT TO SEE THE GODDESS, ''MADAM PELE.'' 575 the tops of great mountain peaks, but such is not the case with all Hawaiian volcanoes. Kilauea, itself, is situated on a compara- tively flat, irregular side of Mauna Loa mountain, at an elevation of less than a third of the distance to the summit. There are hundreds of old craters and large volcanic cones on various parts Lava Trail Within Kilauea's Floor. of the mountain, including a great crater on the summit, but by far the most important one, and the one that attracts the atten- tion of tourists and sight-seers, is the Kilauea crater. Nothing is to be seen of the crater until its very edge is reached, and then what a sight! One can but stand awe-struck at

, 576 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the wonderful vision presented to him. His mind tries to measure the power employed by the forces of Mother Nature in producing such a result. He sees before him an eliptical depression, some twenty miles or more in circumference, with perpendicular walls ranging from 100 feet to 600 feet in height. At first sight I should have thought the crater extinct. Here The Great Cracks of 1868, Within Kilauea's Floor. and there, in fifty or more places, clouds of steam and smoke were rising, but not more than might come from so many camp-fires. We made our descent into the crater by the old zigzag trail passing, at least in the upper half of its course, through shrubbery and tree ferns that seem to have held undisturbed possession of

A VISIT TO SEETHE GODDESS, ''MADAM PELE.'' 577 this corner of Pele's domains for ages. After having gone a dis- tance of perhaps one-half of a mile, we reached the real crater floor. This is of lava which, although black and bare of vegeta- tion, shows no sign of underlying fire, and is crossed by a well worn trail which, for aught that appears', may have been trodden by generations of visitors. The floor, which from the Volcano house had appeared to be a smooth surface of shining "pahochoe," was found to be very unlevel, with here and there in dozens of places great round lava knolls twenty and thirty feet high standing out as so many senti- nels watching Pele and guarding her interests. It is also crossed and broken up by great crevasses and cracks from many of which escape steam and intense heat. The largest crevass within the crater is perhaps fifteen feet wide, and is spanned by a log foot- bridge. This is a part of the great earthquake crack of 1868 which extends for a distance of forty-five or fifty miles, from the Puna coast up through Kilauea and on over the Kau desert, and finally reaches the sea near the little town of Punalem. It varies The "Devil's Picture Frame.

. 578 IMPRO VEMENT ERA in width from a few feet to more than one hundred feet, and in places its depth is so great that it can not be determined. Over some of the heat cracks we scortched a number of postal cards, and burned some almost to a crisp. Occasionally gusts of intense heat would come from the cracks, and we were compelled to re- treat several different times to escape being severely burnt our- selves. Within the great crater floor of Kilauea are many places of interest which we visited. One, the "Devil's Picture Frame," is a place where at one time molten lava flowed over an embankment about six feet high in such a way that a number of frame-like openings were formed. Another place known as "Madam Pele's Chimney," is a circular hole in the lava out of which a great amount of smoke, steam and sulphur fumes are constantly pour- ing. The "Little Terror," is an extinct blow-hole, so named I sup- pose from its present appearance, for indeed its appearance indicates that it must have been a terror in its day. After having gone a distance of three miles over the crater floor from the Volcano house, we reached the brink of the Hale- ma'uma'u pit where Madam Pele is now confining herself. We were overtaken by a feeling almost of fear as we looked into the pit, and our first impulse was to shrink back away from it. The entire scene could be taken in at a glance — a vast crater pit with- in another crater, and circular in form, as its parent, with a dia- meter of nearly a half mile and a depth of 700 feet or more. Its precipitous sides consists of irregular stratified lava varying in hue from gray to brick red. Try to imagine if you can such a scene . It all lies at your feet, and yet it seems dream-like and far away, and no wonder, for in fact the active spouting cone which occupies a position in the central part of the floor of the pit is fully a quarter of a mile away. In absence of familiar objects for comparison, you would naturally at first greatly underestimate magnitudes. The bottom of the pit below you looks as though it might cover an area of eight or nine acres, while in fact it is nearer twenty-five. The active cone seems to be scarcely five feet higher than the level of the surrounding floor, but in reality it is about sixty-five feet high.

A VISIT TO SEtJ THE GODDESS, ''MADAM PEL E." 579 As the light of day began to fade away, and the shadows of night darkened the doors of Pele's cozy home, we were able to watch and see much better the movements and doings of the Ha- waiian goddess. We stationed ourselves at a place where a good bird's eye view of the entire pit could be obtained, and waited to see such displays of nature's fireworks as the controller of the inner elements of the earth might be disposed to exhibit. We had not long to wait, for as soon as darkness had set in all around, the Active Volcano as Seen at Night. floor of the pit, which by day-light had appeared to be uniformly black, was seen to be crossed with a net- work of cracks and fis- sures which formed more or less intricate patterns through which the light of the glowing metal beneath was seen. At times the sudden cooling of the lava-covering produced breaks in it, and from them oozed some of the liquid fire confined beneath and flooded over small areas of from twenty feet to two hundred feet square, illuminating the entire surroundings. While watching this display, our attention was at times at- tracted by the actions of the spouting cone . It was in it that the

580 IMPROVEMENT ERA. most of the work was going on. From its mouth, which was per- haps eight feet in diameter, there was more or less lava being thrown out, some of which would reach a height of two hundred feet or more. There would be a few moments quietness within the cone during which time the boiling and splashing of the lava could be heard. Following this lull, a rumbling noise as of distant thunder, and then all of a sudden a large amount of lava rock would be shot out from the opening as though all the powers of the inner and lower world were behind it. The rock would scatter and fly in all directions through the air producing a sight unequaled by the discharge of hundreds of sky-rockets on a dark night. Our attention was again directed to the work going on within the floor of the pit, A great opening had formed, and from it be- gan to pour a boiling and seething mass of lava which spread and spread as a great flood, until in less than thirty minutes it ha covered an area of at least ten acres with a new coating of lava ten feet or more in thickness. The walls of the pit glowed with the reflection of the livid volcanic flre, and the clouds above seemed , to catch the same unearthly light and took upon them a hue too beautiful to describe. The fire glowed at first like molten iron, drawn from a smelting furnace, then changed to a livid red, and continued fading until it showed only here and there glowing eyes of fire looking out from cavernous depths. The reflectioiji of the flow was plainly seen at places fifty miles distant. We likened what we had seen to the idea that the greater part of the religious world have concerning hell, and decided that were the place of punishment for the wicked and ungodly anything like the fiery pit of Halema'uma'u, we ourselves would certainly try to steer our barks otherwhere. At one time the Halema'uma'u pit was at a level with the rest of Kilauea's floor, but during the year 1894 the whole of the area now comprised within the upper rim of the pit, appeared to have been undermined by the liquid lava beneath, which was suddenly drained oflp, where, no one can say. All we know is that it was all swallowed up in an instant, and hid forever in an unknown abyss. When I first saw the crater, in July, 1905, it was considered to be between eight and nine hundred feet deep. There were at that

. — A VISIT TO SEE THE GODDESS, ''MADAM PELE." 581 time three distinct cones on its floor, two of which were active, while at the present time but one cone is to be seen. The others have been covered by the lava rising in the pit, a thing that has been taking place recently to such an extent that more than 100 feet has been built over the entire floor during the past year. In the cool of the morning following our visit to the pit, the entire cruter seemed to be filled with white steam, due probably to the rain which fell during the night. The clouds of steam pre- sented an impressive sight as they were caught by the trade winds and swept horizontally from the crater's rim toward the dome- shaped top of old Mauna Loa. Thanking Pele for the splendid entertainment she had afforded us, we took a last survey of the surroundings, and then returned to our fields of labor, Elders Neff and Smith going back to Hilo, and Elder Farr and I riding all day over the Kau desert, crossing lava flows, and finally reaching Pahala, where we found a home and some kind friends among the Saints Honolulu, T. H. A PSALM OF HOPE. {For the Improvement Era.) Rejoice, house of Israel, rejoice! Lift up thy face and wipe thy tears away. Lift up thy voice in everlasting song, Zion, thy redemption draweth nigh. wondrous age, thy years are strung like pearls Upon the golden thread of time. Of thee Hath sprung the wonder of the centuries The miracle that awes the world. Down all The reach of time the ancient sun ne'er shone On scenes more glorious than these, on time More fraught with prophecy; more luminous With hope. The bud of truth has burst aflower, And every breeze its exhalation bears. Rejoice, house of Israel, rejoice! Lift up thy face and wipe thy tears away. Lift up thy voice in everlasting song, Zion, thy redemption draweth nigh. Salt Lake City, '.Utah. Theo. E. Curtis.