Wisconsin tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1847-1854, 1852-03-25
REMARKABLE VOLCANIC ERUPfIUss.
pr PROF. HITCHCOCK.

Go with me to the Sandwich Islands. and we
shall get an impressive glimpse of the principal
agency by which the earths crust has been ridged,
filrrowed, and dislocated. As we land upon
Hawaii, we perceive it to be composed mainly of
lava of no very distant 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, while yet some miles
from it. we descend a steep slope, to broad ter
race. These slopes and terraces extend circularly
around the pillar of smoke like the seats of vast
amphitheatre.
Coming near to this column, our steps are ar
rested on the margin of vast gulf fifteen hundred
feet deep, and from eight 10 ten miles in circum-
ference. whose bottom is the seat OF the most
remarkable volcano or the globe--l mean Hilaue-
Wait here till night closes around JUS, and we
-lI s,sitrvass ,nf. awfpl uhlimitv. QEeg
agency beneath be exerted Ever and anon, and
mingled in strange discord. with hissings and
groanings, nlutterings and thunderings, be heard
rolling from side TO side, and making the earth
tremble around. Then from one and another
volcanic cone-perhaps from 6ity-will the glow
en- furiously upwards,-and smoke and flames
VIII be poured out and the dark, tagged sides of
the vast furnace will glow with unearthlv splen-
dor-and here and there, will lakes of liquid lava
appear, one or two miles in extent, heaving IN
their pillows, and dashing their fiery spray high
IN the air. o, there Is not on earth, a livelier
emblem of the world of despair; and vet we know
* of ina 1alyo ~
stone, nor the abode of lost spirits We know it
to be only one of the safety valves our globe and
an exhibition of that mighty agency within the
globe, which have heaved and dslocated its crust,
ana therefore, as we gaze upon the scene and
forget our fatigue and sleep, We experience only
emotions of awful sublinity, which can hardly
fail to rise into alteration of that infinite Being.
who says even to this agency, thus far shalt thou
go, and no farther
Stlll more awful, is often the scene presented bv
a volcanic eruption. Imagine Yourself for in
stance, upon one OF the wide, elevated plains of
Mexico, far from the fears of volcanoes. The
earth begins to quake under your feet, and the
most alarming subterranean noises admonisn Won
Of a mighty power within the earth that must
mountains in time to see ten square miles of the
PLAIN swell up like bladder to the height of five
hundred feet,-whle numerous smaller cones rise
from the surface still higher, and emit smoke =
and IN their midst, six mountains are thrown up
10 the height some of them, of at least SIX hun
dred feet and pour forth melted lava, turning
rivers out of their course, and spreading terrific
,I,5r,
ing lis former inhabitants. Such was the erup-
ton by which Jorullo, in Mexico was suddenly
thrown up in 1889
Still more terrific have been some eruptions in
Iceland. In 1856, earthquakes of tremendous
power, shook the whole island, and flames burst
forth from the ocean. In June, these ceased, and
Skaptar Jocul opened its mouth; nor did it close,
until it had poured forth two streams of lava, one
sixty miles long, and seven broad, both with an
average thickness Of one hundred feet During
the summer, the inhabitants saw the sun no more.
and all Europe was covered with a haze
Around the Papadayung, one of the loftiest
in Java, no less than forty villages |
were rePosing in peace. But in August, 1872, |
remarkable luminous cloud enyeloped its top, and /
too late-for at once the mountain began TO sink
INTO the earth, and soon it disappeared with the |
orty villages, and most of the inhabitants, over |
space fifteen miles long, and SIX broad.
Still more extraordinary-th most remarkable /
IN record,-was an eruption in Sumbawa, one OF .
he Molucca Islands, in 1915 1t began on the .
5th day Of April, and did not cease till July
The explosions were heard in one direction, nine
hundred and seventy miles, and in another, seven
hundred and twenty miles. So heavy was the .
all of ashes at the distance of forty miles that
louses were crushed and destroyed The floating
finders in the ocean, hundreds of miles distant
we're two feet thick, and vessels were forced thro
hem with difficulty. The darkness of Java, three
hundred miles distant was deeper than the black
st night; and finally, out Of the twelve thousand
inhabitants of the island, only six arvived the