The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-08-07
Iceland's Terrible Catastrophe.

On the heels of news of an overflow of
the Garoune at Toulouse and terrible
earthquake in New Granada comes
tidings of calamity on the remote
shores of Iceland, which, considering
the limited area of the country, is rs
severe visitation to it's inhabitants as
the inundation has been to the French.
We find some account of the 1celandic
disaster in our foreign files, coupled
with an appeal to the charitable of
Europe for aid to sustain the sufferers
until another season. The island, as is
we'll known, is the unfortunate possessor
of several active volcanoes, some of
which are situated in an unexplored
region, and have not yet been looked
upon by mortal eye. But their uneasy
contents have been made manifest from
time to time by dense showers of ashes,
which have fallen miles away and de-
stroyed the scanty vegetation upon
which the focks of the people have
subsisted.
In March last the district of Mulasysla
was visited by one of these disasters,
the greatest, say the advices, that has
afflicted Iceland since 1888, when IA, 0OO
people were destroyed. An intelligent
gentleman living in the devastated
Gunnarsson, writes for the European
mail an account from which the follow
ing paragraph is taken. Aside from its
value as description of the gloomy
and dreadful visitation, it gives infor-
nation of unusual interest to scientific
men.
"On Easter Monday, early in the
morning, load rumbling noises were
heard in the westward, and apparently
toward the northwest. Presently the
sounds turned backward. The air was
heavy AMI jet black toward the north and
northeast.l About nine o'clsck whitish-
gray scoriaceous sand began to fall from
| the sky, the particles averaging the size
of grain, but in shape longer. The
dark column moved on nearer and nearer,
and the darkness rapidly increased,
while scoriaceous hail thickened at the
same rate. A full hour before noon
candles had to be lighted in the houses,
and at noon the darkness was as dense
as that of windowless house. Even
not be distinguished at the distance of
q few inches from the eye. The pitch
darkness lasted for about an hour.
During the dark all glass windows ap-
peared like mirrors to those inside,
rejecting the objects on which the
light fell as if they had been covered
outside with coat of quicksilver. For
four consecutive hours it was necessary
to have lighted candles in the house.
During that time the ashes and sand
were falling thick and fast. lightning
and claps OF thunder were at the same
time seen and heard in rapid succession,
and everything seemed to tremble
again. The air was charged with cleo
tricity to such an extent that pinnacles
and staff-spikes of iron, when turned in
the air, seemed all ablaze."
When the darkness passed away it
was discovered that the surface of the
island to an extent of nearly 5000
square miles had been covered with q
layer OF ashes and scori8 from II to 8
inches deep. In many places pumice
boulders as large as the fist had fallen.
The ashes came down hot, with a sui
| phurous smell, but both heat and odor
were soon dissipated. The pasturage
was destroyed, and rs it was upon that
that the sheep and cattle lived, famine
| stared the inhabitants in the face. The
result has been that the people, hastily
abandoning their homes, have fled into
the neiehboring districts, which,
though untouched by the eruption, are
but scantily provisioned, and SO the
| over.crOWolng threatens starvation to
| all. It is to save the Icelanders from
this impending calamity that the cry
goes up from the chief men of Reyk-
javik for help.
Perhaps with so many nearer demands
upon our means for assistance, it would
hardly be expe cted that distant America
could respond to an appeal which takes
three months to reach her. But no
more here than in Europe, where the
subscription paper is being passed
around, can the possible wholesale star
walton of people be contemplated with
out dismay and distress. It is less than
a year ago that our interest in Iceland
and her hardy children was vastly in
creased by the picturesque accounts of
the millennial celebration sent home by
the journalists who were present as
representatives of the New World. If
this interest, as we'll as the sympathy
which makes the world akin, moves any
OF our renders to contribute to the Ice
land fund, the deed wi not be amiss
even though the poor also be at our own
doors. In England subscriptions are
received by the Lord Mayor OF Lon.
dan.-NesO York World.