ABSTRACT
Geologists like James Dwight Dana alongside travelers like Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming, Isabella Bird, and Anna Allnut Brassey helped expand the understanding of the Earth and its changes over time by reporting on Hawaii's unique volcanoes. Even though Kilauea would become one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and even though it was quite active when Gordon-Cumming was viewing it, the differences between human time and deep time made the volcano disappointing. Gordon-Cumming's experiences related in her travelogue Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii its Volcanoes, and The History of its Missions are especially important because they show the skips and friction between human time and deep time. Gordon-Cumming's journey to Kilauea and adventures in and around the volcano are quite spectacular: few people are quite as lucky to see Kilauea in a moment of apparent quiescence and then in a flurry of activity.
