Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-05-17

there was no eruption subsequently
for . period Of nearly . thousand
years. Columns of fame, indeed,
were visible, and quantities Of
smoke, but there were no scori@, or
ashes, nor lava, until 1885,, the year
when Harold the Dauntless was
slain at Hastings, and William,
Duke of Normandy, became King
| Of merrie England. OF that erup-
ton little is known, nor Of those
which occurred in 1906 and 1900.
In 1891, the great floods Of lava
burst from the crater, overfowing
the villages at the base. At the
! same time torrents of boiling water
were sent to an immense height,
and then fell down as scalding rain.
1t is singular fact that great guam
titles of fish were discharged with
the water of kinds similar to those
| in the Bay of Naples. Observers
then noticed for the first time the
| electric character of the lights dis
played at night time around the
cone of the crater, and the forked
lightning that darted from the
clouds Of smoke. There is no
record among Roman writer's of
any eruption prior to that which
destroyed Pompeii and Herculan-
cum, but it is probable that such a
terrible cataclysm as that which
occurred in 20 will never occur
again.
The phenomena of volcanic erup-
tions seem to be chiefly limited to
certain regions of the earth, whose
area is well defined. In some of
these there are continual burstings
forth Of flame and smoke, scorie
and lava, like Stromboli, in the
Mediterranean, on the coast of
Sicily; and there are others, like
Vesuvius, whose demonstrations
take place at irregular intervals,
separated from each other some,
times by hundreds Of years. Thus
there was NO eruption from Vesu-
vius from 70 until 1860, and then
there was no eruption from 1906
until the year 1900, nor from that
date until 1881. The mountains
of this description appear to be
built up by tho accumulation Of
scori@ and lava and ashes. When
our readers reflect that Cotopaxi,
the highest volcano in the Andes
chain, is nearly $4,000 feet above
the level Of the sea, they will be
able to form some idea Of the mag
nitude on which nature conducts
her operations. Sangay, volcano
in Chill, not far from Quito, and ~
600 feet high, has an eruptionevery
quarter Of an hour, belching out
scori@ and lava with a hideous
roar that can be heard at a distance
Of 400 miles. Stromboli, in an
island Of that name among the
Lipsri group, discharges lava every
hour with unceasing regularity, and
has done SO for the last 1000 years.
Mauna Loa, in the island of Hawaii
is famous for the enormous size Of
its crater and the incalculable guam
titles Of lava it discharges at irregu-
lar intervals. But the most fright
full volcanoes are in the islands Of
the Indian archipelago, especially
those Of Java and Sumatra. The
former island actually contains
fcrty.six of these remarkable vents
Of natures passions, and during an
eruption from one of these there
was u horrible pail of gases and
black smoke, which extended over a
radius Of 200 miles, and the shocks
were felt 900 miles away. Almost
all volcanoes of any Importance are
on the coast line, and the distingu-
ished geologist, Sir Charles LyelI,
has suggested that the hydrogen set
free when the water is decomposcd
by contact with metallic bases may
remain confined in the interior of a
liquid form, perhaps, under intense
pressure, and afterward, in the
movements that take place, it might
come in contact with metallic OK
ides at high temperature, and
reduce these on the same principle
that potassium is produced in the
common gun-barrel proc S.
Others have explained volcanic
action by the hypothesis ofthe fused
condition ofthe earth's interior, and
have, with great patience and in
dustry, traced a connection between
recorded eruptions and earthquakes
with the conviction that the latter
are produced by shrinking of the
earth's crust, owing to differences
Of densitics and temperatures, and
that eruptions are subsidiary to
these shrinkings.
Presidsxt Grant ~ Q Man.