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Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii — Four days of snow on Big Island mountaintops have driven the “phantom dog” of Mauna Loa back to his occasional habitat in an old packing case near here.
The little white animal has been spotted off and on near the U.S. Weather Bureau installation in the lava wastes at the 11,150-foot elevation since October, 1959.
In the last year or so, he had taken up part-time residence in the packing crate in a refuse area several hundred feet from the observatory.
Observatory scientists started leaving dog food out for him, and he waited for his meals occasionally — at a discreet distance.
But, when the observatory area became fairly populous with Atomic Energy Commission researchers on a special project in the last couple of months, the dog disappeared.
Yesterday, however, when weather observatory personnel returned after a weekend off, they found tracks in the snow indicating that the dog was back.
Howard Ellis, physicist in charge, said the tracks came down the trail from the summit area.
Ellis put out a good meal of dog food as they left in the afternoon.
The little white animal, weighing about 10 to 15 pounds, figures in a local legend which says he is Pele’s dog and that his appearance heralds a volcanic eruption.
His batting average as a prognosticator has slipped in the last year or so, however.
His first two appearances, in 1959 and 1961, came shortly before Kilauea eruptions.
WEATHER FORECAST
Honolulu and vicinity — Variable cloudiness today, tonight and Wednesday. Frequent showers in mountain sections, showers reaching the city at times. Gusty trades 15 to 25 miles an hour. High today 82; low tonight 70.
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