The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-09-09
ICEtAND'S IMPENDING DOOM
EFFECT OF THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION
OF LAST SPRING.

OF LAST SPRING.
THE GAUNr WOLF OF STARVATION AT THF
| THRESHOLD OF THEIR HUTs-AN ENGLISH
| APPEAL FOR THE SUFFERING ICELANDER.
The Sentinel, at the time of the disaster.
published the details of the great volcanic
storm that swept over Iceland last spring.
The London Times OF recent date gives the
sorrowful sequel of the terrible storm: Ice
land is suffering sore distress, aud seems to
have worse bsfore il; and ii ever help ia to
come from England now is the time Since
the eruption of Skaptar Jokull in 1873
which covered with lava and ashes a region
larger than most English counties. aud
killed or doomed to starvation a fifth
of the population, the island has
known no calamity so tsrrible
as that which fell upon it on Easter Monday.
March 90 1879. Let it be remembered, to
begin with, what volcanic oruption in Ice
land means. Iceland Is desert, frinL ed
along the more level part OF the sea- board by
belt Of pasture land. Nor is this desert
simply Scotch or Irish moor, nor yet a
deer forest; it is district doomed to sterility
not, indeed, by game laws but by laws
even more memorable; frost and fire have
made it their Own. Tbe great ice plateau
ofthe Vatna Jokull has Tor its northern
neighoor the Odaharheun, stretching over
hundreds of miles. the hugest lavs-field
of Iceland, barren and waterless.
And, what is claimed neither by
lee Ecr by volcano, is what enc OF them has
leIt-a undu!atine waste Of volcanic sand
and pebbles, or else a tract of bare earth
stre1ed with loose blocks of stone, over
which even an Icslandic pOny-and the
highest price is, or was lately, fetched by
such as have the gait ascribod in the Ho-
meric poems to cows-could scarcely pick
its way. Dwarf birch and willow, aud a
fern or two. may bs found on the lava-feids,
hgYN r1rE cfr ~ A Fo fAgs.- ;.
companion, the rsven-breaks the dominion
Of silence over
THE TWICE -sCoRCHED WASTE
around them. "And what are the Iceland
ers?" people who hear what their country is
like will ask. Those who have the best
rightto speak say they are cheerful, good
humored, industrious, brave people; and, if
any men have a right to ask for aid from us
in the battle they are fighting, not with
want, but with death, the Icelanders have
moral right to ask it. For ten centuries the
men of Iceland have had to lace enemies more
terrible than any with whom th5r conflict
has been forbidden by the distance OF the
Northern sea; they have maintained a
ceaseless struggle against forces which have
continually taught them at once TO bow be-
fore the might, and to recognize the COM
pensating benihcence of Providence. The
storms of winter or spring, the desolatiDg
earthquakes, forbade them to finish their
task in Jilling the ground. Their wealth, es-
pecislly in the broad river valleys of the
northeastern coast, has been, since the time
of the first colonists-who raised corn and
crops that will not ripen now-in sheep and
cattle, and to some extent in horses.
Hay producing fields and pasturing-
yielding mountains and valleys are here
the ultimate conditions of human life.
Every baer, or farmhouse, has attached to
il an Enclosure of grass land, its stun or
town, generally covered with hillocks foot
or foot and half high. II tire hay crop
fails, if the cattle can not be kept alive, this
means for the Icelanders famine and dis
ease. The details OF the disaster which be-
fell in March will now bs more easily I'M
derstood. Volcanic activity had, since 1867,
beeD showing itself in various places in and
about the ice region of the
Vatna Jokull, but without doing
much mischief. Last spring this
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY CONCENTRATED ITSELF
in particular district-that of the so-called
wiIds OF Myvatn. Sporadic eruptions, &C
companied by great earthquakes and dust
haze in the sky, broke out in many places,
and at night the whole countryside stoed in
a blazs of smoke and fire. Two points, sat a
considerable distance from each other,
have been the capital furnaces OF the
eruption of Myvstn; one is near the
mountain called KoIlottatjal, "the bald
hill" the other, south of this, in
Dyngjufgoll, a group rising on the spurs OF
the great lava waste of the Oualarhaun,
fringing tho northern spurs OF the frozen
tableland. On Easter Monday, March 20,
this southern crater of DynQjufgon burst
into an eruption OF appalling violence. 1t
ia close on eighteen centuries since the boy
who had Just seen it described in letters to
~ nj nt
catastrophe which overwhelmed Pompeii
and Herculaneum, aud never perhaps since
then has like disaster been surrounded
by terrors which hearsay leaves so
palpable. On Easter Monday, March
% last early in the morning,
Loud RUIZ bling noises were heard to the
westward. The air was heavy and jet black
toward the north and northwest. About
O'Clock gray scoriaceus sand began to tall
from the sky, dark column moved on
nearer and nesrer, the darkness grew
deeper and with it the hail of scoriae thick
ened. About ii "A. NJ. candles had to De
lighted in the houses; by noon the black ness
was so dense that out OF doors a man could
not distinguish the finger of his hand at
few inches from his eye. The utter dark
ness lasted from about noon TO P. NJ. Dur
ing this time windows seemed 20 one
wITHINTHE HOUSE LIKE MIRRORS,
rejecting any object on which the light fell
as if they had been coated on the outside
with quicksilver. Meanwhile, ashes and
Sand were falling thick and fast. The air
was so charged with electricity that if an
iron spike werelaid out at the door it seemed
a blaze. aud the thundeTclaps chased each
other in rapid echoes scsoss the sky. When
the darkness wore of, about n, the
shower of ashes abated. Then it was seen
that the layer of ashes and scorise that
covered the earth was from one
and one.half TO eight inches deep
-coRrsest where thIckest, in many
places showing pumice powders twice
as big as mans fist. The last mail from
Iceland brings the tidings that the north
ernly, also, of the two craters was lately
pouring molten lava over what were once
summer pastures. But 1t is from the dis