VISIT TO A VOLCANO—MADAM PELE'S HAIR—NARROW ESCAPE FROM FALLING INTO A VOLCANO.

Two "Mormon" Elders—missionaries on the Sandwich Islands—once had occasion to visit that great natural wonder, the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii, which is the largest island of the group. The Kilauea is 4,000 feet above sea-level and is on the side of a mountain, which rises 10,000 feet higher. On the top of this mountain is the master volcano of the Pacific.

At the time of the visit mentioned the Kilauea activity was confined to an immense cavity in the center of the crater valley, which is three miles in diameter and sunken two hundred feet below the surface, with black walls surrounding it which could only be descended with the utmost caution. While traversing this black surface, to reach the living lake of molten lava the visitor is liable to break through a blister and imagine he is about to make an involuntary descent into the fiery liquid below until he grasps the surface with his hands and obtains a firmer footing. On reaching the "lake" he looks downward two hundred feet upon a restless moving mass of red hot lava, surging against the rocky sides with such force as to throw masses of lava into the air, there to be caught by heavy gusts of wind and spun out into threads that bear some resemblance to a woman's hair. Indeed it is called "Madam Pele's hair," that is, the hair of "Pele," the fabled goddess of the volcano.

On the occasion mentioned curiosity and ambition led the two Elders to walk out to the very edge of the crater in order to look down more directly upon the fantastic display of the red hot mass. One of them even ventured to stand upon a projecting point of rock, veneered over with black and glossy lava, from which vantage point he watched the changes constantly occurring upon the surface of the crater. The glaring red lava sometimes cools very rapidly, and the surface of the crater may change in appearance within a few minutes from a brilliant red to a glossy black. Then within a few minutes a strip of red may appear across the surface, as if it were furrow plowed by some mighty genii, and then extending from this line, as if by magic, the black surface caves in or is overflowed by the fiery liquid below until the whole lake is again an active pulsating mass of red molten lava. As the beholder views this impressive spectacle he is apt to yield to a feeling of fascination, until he contemplates the Power that controls the mighty forces of nature of which that before him is only a slight exhibition, when a feeling of awe and sense of his own insignificance overwhelms him. He realizes how utterly impotent he would be if left to contend with such forces, and is impressed with the incomparable majesty and greatness of that Being who controls, operates and holds in check the forces of nature, and feels like exclaiming as one of old "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"

While the two Elders stood upon the brink of the volcano absorbed in thought a sudden feeling came over the one who occupied the position upon the projecting rock that he remove therefrom, and he immediately acted upon it by walking back to where his companion stood, a few feet distant. He had scarcely vacated the projecting point when it split off from the mainland and dropped into the seething mass below. An instant's delay in acting upon the admonition that came to him would have meant certain death in a most shocking form. The volcano no longer had any attraction for him; on the contrary, he felt impelled to hurry away from the scene; he did so with a fervent feeling of gratitude to the Lord for the presence of the monitor that prompted him in time to enable him to escape from the horrible death that menaced him.

H. H. C.