The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1852-02-05

BY PRoF. HITCHCOCK.
Go with me to the Sandwich Islands, and
we shall get an impressive glimpse Of the
principal agency by which the esrth's crust
has been ridged, furrowed, and dislocated.
As we land upon Hawaii, we perceive it to
be composed mainly Of lava of no very dis
tant date. We ascend a lofty plateau, and
many league in advance Of US, we see a
column of smoke rising from vast plain.
Directing Our course thither, " bile yet some
miles from il, we descend steep slope, to
a broad terrace, and then a second slope, to
extend circUlarly around the pillar of smoke
like the seats Of vast nmphitheatre.
Coming near to this column. our steps gre
arrested on the margin of a vast gulf. fifteen
hundred feet deep, and from eight TO ten
miles in circumference, whose bottom is the
seat Of the most remarkable volcano on
the globe--l mean Hilans. Wait here till
night closes around Us, and we shall witness
a scene Of awful sublimiiy. Over the i'm
mense area Of that gulf, will the volcanic
agency beneath be exerted. Ever andsauon,
and mingled IN strange discord, will his
sings aud groanings, tnotterings and thun-
derings, be heard rolling from side TO side,
and making the earth tremble around. Then
from one and another volcanic cone-per-
haps from 6fty-wiil the glowing lava burst
forth--red hot stones will be driven furi-
ously upward, ,-and smoke and flames will
be poured out, and the dark, Jagged sides of
the vast furnace will glow with uuear,biy
splendor--and here and there, viii lakes of
liquid lava appear, one or two miles IN ex-
tent, heaving up their pillows, and dashing
their fiery spray high in the air. D, there
is not on earth, livelisr emblem of the
world Of despair; and yet we know it is not
the lake that burneth with fire and brim-
stone, nor the abode Of lost spirits. We
know it to be only one of the safety valves
of our globe, and an exhibition of that
mighty agency within the globe, which has
heayed and disloeated its crust; and there
fore, as we gazs upon the scene, aud forget
our fatigue and sleep, we experience only
emotions of awful subIiinity, which can
hardly fail to rise into alteration of that IN
finite Being, who says even to this agency,
thus far shalt rhon 60, and no farther.
{, Still more awful, is often the scene pre-
scented by volcanic eruption. Imagine
yourself, for instance, upon one Of the wide,
elevated plains Of Mexico, far from the fear
| Of volcanoes. The earth begins to quake
under your feet, and the most alarming sub
terranean noises admonish you of a mighty
power within the earth, thatn soon have
vent. You flee to the surrounding noun
tains IN time to see ten square miles OF the
| plain swell up like bladder to the height
of five hundred feet,--while numerous small
| Ter cones rise from the surface still higher, /,
and emit smokes; aud in their midst, six
mountains are thrown up tolthe height, some
of them, Of at lehst six hundred feet, and
pour forth melted lava, turning rivers out OF
their course, and spreading terrific desola-
ton over fertile plain, and forever exclud-
ing ITS former inhabitants. Such was the
eruption by which Joruilo, in Mexico, was
suddenly thrown up in 1859.
Still more terrific have been some erup-
tons in Iceland. In 1885, earthquakes Of
Tremendous power, shook the whole island
and flames burst forth from the ocean. In
June, these ceased, aud Skaptar Joeul open
ed its mouth nor did il close, until it had
poured forth two streams Of lava, one sixty
miles long, and seven bread, both with All
iaverage thickness OF. one hundred feet. Du-
sun no more, and ali Europe was covered
with haze. .as tsu- tat | n
Around the Papadayung. one Of the lofii-
est mountains in Java, no less than forty
villages were reposiug in peace. But in
August, I772, a remarkable luminous cloud
enyeloped its top, and aroused them from
their security. But it was too latc--for ai
once the mountain began to sink into the
earth, and socn il itdlsappeared with the forty
villages, and most OF the inhabitants, over Q
|, Ispace fifteen miles long, and six broad.
i Still more extraordinary--the most re.
, markable on record,--was an eruption in
! Sumbawa, one of the MolHcca Islands. ir
: 1916 In began on the 5tb day of April and
did not cease till July. The Explosion:
were heard il one direction, nine hundred
4 and seventy miles, and in another, sever
hundred and twenty mites. So heavy wa.
the fall Of ashes at the distance of forty
miles, thar houses were crushed and de-
2 stroyed. The floating einders in the ocean
hundreds Of miles distant, were two fee
thick, and vessels were forced through then
with difficulty. The darkness Of Java, threi
hundred miles distant, was deeper that tn.
biackest night; and finally, out of The lively,
! thousand inhabitants Of the island, only 81,
survived the catastrophe. 2f.a