AMID ETERNAL FIRES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19011, 6 November 1923, Page 4

AMID ETERNAL FIRES.

LIFE ON VOLCANO TOP. PROFESSOR’S INVESTIGATIONS. BUNGALOW BESIDE A CRATER. In a bungalow on the brink of the crater of the active volcano of Kilauea, in Hawaii, lives a man, Professor T. A. J-aggnr, who has devoted many years to the study of volcanology. This scientist carries on his investigations in the midst, of terrifying erupt ions, and in the course of his 14 years’ sojourn on the mountain-top ho has experienced some remarkable adventures. Picture, if you can, a bungalow with a broad verandah, somewhat suggestive of California, but more typical of the South Sens. It overlooks the active crater of Kilauea. Perched high un on a steep slope, surrounded by a tangled mass of 'vegetation, it is a fascinating retreat by day and an awe-inspiring eyrie by night. From the edge of this verandah the outer crater of Kilauea stretches across the •foreground for a distance of’ two or throe miles, forming a great sunken oval. Issuing from a hundred fissures and cones are jots of steam and smoke, reminding one that Mother Earth still holds within her depths those primeval fires which ages ago tore continents asunder, thrust mighty peaks up from the sea, and submerged whole countries beneath the waters. Within a stone’s throw of this fiery pit, the Jaggars live and work. It is doubtful if any other scientist has engaged in such a series of adventurous expeditions as Professor Jaggar. There is, for example, the trip to Manna Loa in September, 1919, when that untamed monster poured forth her fiery torrents for weeks on end, until the island rocked and the sea was lushed into steaming fury. LAKES OF MOLTEN FIRE. It was a spectacle that an ordinary man would count compensation for a whole lifetime of njonotony, yet the professor refers to it as little more than a passing incident in his work. Lurid lava pools, spouting hundreds of feet in the air. inspire no terror in his mind. .Lakes of molten fire may burst their confines and blaze a broad trail of destruction down the mountain side, but they do not cause the patient searcher to turn back from his quest. A few summers ago Professor Jaggar determined to undertake a very difficult task in connection with the observation of Kilauea. He had observed that the lava seemed to ebb and flow in the crater with some semblance of regularity. But how much the lava rose, how often it rose, and what connection, if any, these changes might have with other natural phenomena, were questions that remained unanswered. A THRILLING ORDEAL. The director of the observatory proposed to make accurate measurements of the rise and fall of the lava in one of Halemaumau’s lava lakes every 15 minutes for a period of four weeks. When he set up a shelter in the. crater he discovered that he was indeed getting “close to his subject.” The shelter consisted of a square of canvas supported by four heavy green timbers, a rude table for holding papers, a kerosene lantern, and a stool. In the oourse of the month of observation the temperature of the lava increased so much that it burned off the bases of the four green timbers! Sleeping quarters for certain of the observers were set up not far from the transit shelter. They consisted of a small tent and a few pieces of furniture, including a bed. Plow anyone could have slept amid such surroundings is difficult to imagine. On one occasion while they were in the shelter,, a rift opened in the floor and there rushed forth a blast of intensely hot gas. The temperature of the rooky floor was almost unbearable, and Mrs Jaggar’s gloves, blowing from the table to the floor, burst into flames before she could pick them up.