CHAPTER XXV.
The Wonderful Hawaiian Craters and Kilauea's Lake of Fire.
In the central region of the North Pacific Ocean lies the archipelago
formerly known as the Sandwich Islands, now collectively designated as
Hawaii. The people of the United States should be specially interested
in this island group, for it has become one of our possessions, an
outlying Territory of our growing Republic, and in making it part of
our national domain we have not alone extended our dominion far over the
seas, but have added to the many marvels of nature within our land one
of the chief wonders of the world, the stupendous Hawaiian
volcanoes, before whose grandeur many of more ancient fame sink into
insignificance.
THE ISLAND OF HAWAII
The Island of Hawaii, the principal island of the group, we may safely
say contains the most enormous volcano of the earth. Indeed, the whole
island, which is 4000 square miles in extent, may be regarded as of
volcanic origin. It contains four volcanic mountains--Kohola, Hualalia,
Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The two last named are the chief, the former
being 13,800 feet, the latter 13,600 feet, above the sea-level. Although
their height is so vast, the ascent to their summits is so gradual that
their circumference at the base is enormous. The bulk of each of them is
reckoned to be equal to two and a half times that of Etna. Some of the
streams of lava which have emanated from them are twenty-six miles in
length by two miles in breadth.
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