The Volcano Man

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 172, 17 April 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

The Volcano Man

A brave scientist, Dr. Jaggar, has established his home in the crater of Kilauea, close by that of Mauna Loa, the biggest active volcano in the world.

How, in the midst of a world of lava and cinders he has created a garden of astonishing brilliance and beauty is told in “The Children’s Newspaper." The Hawaii Islands have become an important centre for mail boats and airliners crossing the Pacific, and the capital, Honolulu, is now a town of about 400,000, so that it is very necessary to know what the dangerous volcanoes of that group of islands are going to do. Daily the doctor listens to the breathing of the mountain, takes the temperature of its feverish abysses, and measures the pulsations with which it is quivering. Dr. Jaggar says that his observations made during a quarter of a century have established a cycle of 11 years, and that he can now eruptions years in advance. Two years beforehand he had announced almost to the day the violent eruption of Mauna Loa of 1930. He had also pointed out where the lava flow would come and endanger the water supply to the town of Hilo. This enabled, the American aviators stationed at Honolulu to bomb a new path ready for the lava as soon as it came. Naturally a man of such precise experience of volcanoes and their secret ways of doing mischief is in much demand elsewhere, and he is now at Montserrat in the West Indies, where a volcano is showing signs of internal uneasiness. Dr. Jaggar says he may leave Mauna Loa because it will not do anything of importance before 1938.

T like sitting and watching all the light* come twinkling out in the dark. It grows darker and darker, then suddenly oqt shine the street lights, all at once. Then one by one lights appear in the houses, and a ear’s headlights are like the eyes of a giant cat in the dark,—Blossom Fairy (15). Napier.