The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-06-28 00:00:00

THE LATE STORM.

The provincial papers contain accounts of dreadful storms
during the past and present week. The Western Times states
that in Westgate quarter, in Exeter, a large sheet of ice, four
feet long and two inches thick, actually fell in the street.
On Tuesday last, about noon, this town and neighbourhood
were visited by one of the most violent thunder storms, ac-
companied by lightning of the most vivid description we ever
remember to have witnessed in this country. Shortly after
11 o'clock the rolling of thunder was heard in the distance,
which rapidly approached towards the town, and, for about
an hour, the lightning which followed each succeeding peal
was terrific and awful in the extreme. The heavy rain which
fell during this period descended in torrents, doing consi-
derable injury to the numerous gardens in the neighbourhood.
Several of the trees in the Slopes were struck by the light-
ning. Previously to the commencement of the storm, the
Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean, and the Rev. Mr. Stopford,
with some of his family, were assembled in St. George's
Chapel; and likewise Mr. Elvey (organist), Roach the cloister
keeper, and two persons named Wix and Field, the latter of
whom were exhibiting their vocal powers, being candidates
for a deputy singer's situation, now vacant. The parties were
in the organ loft ! but the violence of the thunder and the ex-
treme vividness of the lightning, induced the whole of the
party (with the exception of Roach, who remained in the
loft), to descend and retire, during the raging of the storm,
to another part of the chapel. They had scarcely left when
Roach was struck by the electric fluid on the breast, which
knocked him down, causing him to be nearly insensible for
upwards of 10 minutes, and extremely ill during the remainder
of that and the next day. He is, however, now quite reco-
vered. It may be here observed, as a somewhat singular co-
incidence, that at the time the party were induced to retire
from the organ loft to seek a place of, presumed, greater
safety, the organist had just finished playing that beautiful
anthem—" It is a glorious God that maketh the thunder."
About 12 o'clock, as a woman was crossing the field leading
from the Long Walk to Frogmore, she was struck, knocked
down, and lay in a state of insensibility for several minutes.
During the storm, the female servant of Mr. Neighbour,
tailor, Thames-street, experienced a most fortunate escape.
She was standing at the door at the back of the house, when
she was struck by the electric fluid upon the side of her face.
Her eye, from its effects, was greatly discoloured ; but we are
glad to state that no further injury has accrued to her. We
are informed by a correspondent that at Binfield the hail stones
which fell [were of an unusual size ; three were picked up
which weighed together exactly a quarter of a pound.—
Windsor and Eton Journal.

FORMATION OF THE VOLCANO OF JORULLO

About eighty years ago, the plains of Jorullo, in Mexico,
were the scene of one of the most extraordinary and tremen-
dous catastrophes that ever wrought a change upon the face
of the globe. The southern portion of North America, from
about the twenty-fourth degree of north latitude, across the
isthmus of Panama, to the second degree of south latitude,
is a tract of country which deserves to be entitled par excel-
lence the region of volcanoes. One great chain of volcanic
mountains, with but little interruption, extends over these
twenty-six degrees of latitude ; but if we include the bendings
and curves which the chain or cordillera makes, we cannot
estimate the space over which it passes at much less than two
thousand miles in length. Many of the craters, which open
like enormous cups on the summits of these mountains, re-
main in a state of constant activity, emitting vapour, and
sometimes flames and ashes ; others are subject to periodical
convulsions ; and a third class appear to be altogether ex-
hausted, as no eruption of them has been known to take place.
Several of the lofty peaks penetrate far into the region of per-
petual congelation ; and from their inaccessible summits,
mantled with the snows of unnumbered ages, smoke is seen
continually to issue—a striking spectacle, rendered still more
remarkable by the volcanoes occasionally giving forth lumi-
nous exhalations. Not a few terrific and disastrous eruptions
are on record ; but none, in its astounding effects, is to be
compared with that by which Jorullo was formed, and of
which the celebrated Humboldt was the first to present an
account to Europeans.
Until the year 1759, the present site of the volcano was a
fertile plain, well cultivated, and producing abundance of
indigo and sugar. It appears to have been a place to which
the inhabitants were particularly partial; for the fields were
abundantly watered by artificial means, and a plantation was
here formed, reckoned one of the largest and richest in the
country. In the month of June of the above year, subterra-
ranean noises of the most appalling description were heard,
accompanied by frt quint earthquakes, which, for nearly sixty
days, continued to terrify the inhabitants. A short period of
tranquillity then intervened, and every thing appeared to be
subsiding into its wonted tranquillity, when, on the night of
the 28th September, the horrible subterranean peals were re-
newed, and a tract of ground four miles square swelled up
like an enormous bladder to the height of five hundred feet.
The affrighted Indians fled to a neighbouring mountain, called
Aguasarco ; and those who witnessed the catastrophe informed
Humboldt, that flames were seen to issue forth for an extent
of more than half a square league, that huge fragments of
burning rocks were propelled upwards to an enormous height ;
whilst, through the dense envelop of smoke and ashes, illu-
mined by the lurid blaze of the volcano, the softened surface
of the earth was seen to rise and fall like a tempestuous sea.
Several rivers had their currents " turned awry," and were
precipitated into the fiery gulf, thereby invigorating the flames,
probably from the water being decomposed by the intense
heat. Thousands of small cones, varying from six to nine
feet in height, issued forth from the softened and inflated
surface of the ground. In the midst of these ovens, as the
natives expressively call them, six large masses sprang up
from the bosom of the burning chasm, into an elevation
of from thirteen to seventeen hundred feet each. The
highest of these hills is the great volcano of Jorullo,
which burns continually, and has thrown up upon one
side an immense quantity of ashes and scoriaceous lava.
These great eruptions of the central volcano continued
without intermission till the month of February, 1760 ;
but in the following years they became gradually less frequent.
Great numbers of these small cones or ovens still continue
to pour forth steam, and emit a subterranean noise, which
appears to announce the proximity of a fluid in ebullition.
According to the testimony of the Indians who were present
at the catastrophe, the heat of these volcanic ovens has
suffered a gradual diminution ; but Humboldt still found
their temperature near that of boiling water. The surround-
ing atmosphere, too, was heated to such a degree, that, at a
great distance from the surface, and in the shade, the ther-
mometer rose as high as 109 degrees of Fahrenheit. " This
fact," our traveller remarks, " appears to prove that there
is no exaggeration in the accounts of several old Indians,
r who affirm, that, for many years after the interruption, the
plains of Jorullo, even at a great distance from the scene of
the explosion, were uninhabitable from the excessive heat
which prevailed in them." The ashes of this eruption were
scattered to the distance of one hundred and sixty miles.
" The traveller is still shown, near the Cerro de Santa Ines,
the rivers of Cusiamba and San Pedro, of which the limpid
waters formerly irrigated the sugar plantation of Don Andre
Pimentel. These streams disappeared in the night of the
29th of September, 1759; but at a distance of 6,560 feet
farther west, in the tract which was the theatre of the con-
vulsion, two rivers are now seen bursting through the argilla-
ceous vault of the hornitos (ovens), of the appearance of
mineral waters, in which the thermometer rises to 126 degrees
Fahrenheit." The Indians continue to call these streams
San Pedro and Cusiamba, because, in several parts of the
volcanic ground, great masses of water are heard to run in a
direction from east to west. We have here, then, a double
phenomenon, the formation of the volcano itself, and that of
a subterranean river : such, however, have been found in
other regions of the globe.
On this catastrophe Humboldt justly remarks, that an
event " by which so considerable a tract of country entirely
changed its appearance, is perhaps one of the most remark-
able physical revolutions in the annals of our globe. Geo-
logy indicates parts of the ocean where, within the last two
thousand years, several small volcanic islands have been
formed ; but it gives no other example of the formation,
from the centre of a thousand burning cones, of a mountain
of scoriae and ashes 1,695 feet above the level of the adjoin-
ing plain, upwards of thirty-six leagues from the sea, and
forty-two leagues from every other active volcano." It is
remarkable that this new volcano was formed in a direction
parallel with the line, running east and west, in which all
the elevated summits of the old volcanos
is mentioned,
found. And,
in connection with this curious fact, it mentioned, that
from the lake of Cuisco, in the same quarter of Mexico,
which is impregnated with muriate of soda (common salt),
and exhales sulphuretted hydrogen, to the city of Valladolid,
an extent of forty square leagues, there are a great number
of hot wells. From these indications of volcanic action in
this particular region, Humboldt infers, that there probably
exists here, at a great depth in the heart of the earth, a
chasm, in a direction from east to west, and for a length of
137 leagues, along which the volcanic fire, bursting through
the interior crust of the porphyritic rocks, has at different
epochs made its appearance. The theory is plausible enough ;
but, as yet, the subject of volcanoes is involved in much
obscurity.—Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

The splendid file given on Thursday week by the Marquis
of Westminster to the queen, it is said, cost 44000,