Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1879-07-03

mapped By the Danish government, but
the region shout the Skapta Jokul con.
stitutes m exception. There Is Q tract
Of four hundred square miles not delin-
eaied m the government ordinances
maps, and in this terrific region II Is
said no foot Of man has ever insPuded.
Lord DuHeFin went very near the for
hidden territory, as his Letters from
High Lagllndes" 80 graphically show.
Fl|e ahpnk ihe great voleeno is for
lie swarer. = xOid C nan
and bis woFks o. the poles themseIsek.
Il is an area heaped 20 the clouds with
masses Of ice and SHOWS.
The most tremendous eFuptions Of
which there Is Trustworthy record oc-
CURED in 1888. In May of that year
there was seen throughout that part Of
iceland. mysterious lighs, blush fog.
Early in June there were slight, and,
as it seemed, apprehensive tremblings
Of the earth. On the Sth Of June i'm
mense pillars of sable smoke gathered
over the lofty country Of the north, and
bearing ominously down against the
wind, wrapped the whole district Of
Sida in piichy darkness. On the 10th
of June a whirlwind Of ashes swept
over the entire country. Innumerable
ire-spouts, ike so many demon bea-
cons. now flashed and lesPed through
the frozen hollows Of the mountains.
The river Skapta, one Of the largest in
Iceland, having first poured down to the
plain a volume Of fetid waters mixed
with sand, like the Mexican rivers sud-
denly disappeared. Forty-eight hours
aiterward prodigious mass Of lava, is
suing from sources to which no one has
been able to penetrate, came sliding
down the bed Of the dried-up RIVER.
The channel, according TO Lord Duff
ferin-to whom We are indebted for most
Of these details--was Of great depth
and breadth; but the fearful deluge
brimmed up to its banks, overfiowed
them, and then drove in molten masses
over the face Of the whole country.
Two oceans of lava were the product of
this eruption. The one that flowed
down the Skapta was fifty miles long
by fifteen wide. The other, which
rolled down the Hverfshiot, was forty
miles by seven. Where 1t is impris-
oned by the immensely high banks of
the Skapta, the lava is FIVE or Sax hun.
dred feet thick; but on the plain, after
il emerged, the thickness Of the mass
never exceeds one hundred feet. The
eruption continued until August, awhen
the Plutonic drama concluded with an
earthquake"
The effects of this amazing phenom-
enon extended over q whole gear and
over an immense distance. During all
this time clouds surcharged with Gin
ders hung over Iceland. They over
whelmed, TO a great depth, tens OF thou
sands of acres of fertile lands. The
Farce Islands, the Orkneys and the
Shetlands were covered with volcanic
dust. This substance even extended 10
the atmosphere OF England and of Hol-
land. A number variously estimated,
but doubtless including many thousands
OF human beings and one hundred and
fifty thousand cattle, perished in Ice
land. Apart from such calamIties, this
eruption must have effected some gi-
gantic physical charges, concerning
which we have seen no speculations.
II would appear first that the propel-
ling force within the crater OF the Skap-
"a Jokul. must have been exerted at a
vast depth below the external point of
egress; next, that caverns Of enormous
extent must have been left by the mas
ses which were expelled and, finally,
that as the bulk of lava. boulders and
other ejecta flowed long distance to-
ward the south, and represented many
cubic miles Of solid matter when cool,
a change must have been wrought in
the position toward the previous centre
Of gravity Of considerable portion of
the earth. Whether this movement
was OF sufficient relatative importance
to produce anything more than local
influence we must leave TO scientists to
determine. In any case che subject
presents an interesting field of inquiry.
This stupendous eruption devastated
territory at long distance, but Mount
Etna is much nearer TO man and his
works than the Skapta Jokul, and there
Is apparently danger that Caiania and
even Messina may begravely injured
TO protect the former city a wall was
formerly built quite sixty feet high; and
yet The lava has been known 10 sur
mount this wall and TO pour cascade
Of liquid FIRE into the streets of the city.
Since the first recorded eruption OF
Etna, named by DiOdorus Siculus. there
have been seventy considerable out
breaks of the mountain. That of 1863
was preceded by an earthquake and at
tended by the same phenomena that
are reported now, namely, the opening
OF many fresh chasms or craters a: diff
ferent points Of the promontory.
The eruption overwhelmed fourteen
towns and villages, some Of them at a
great distance from the volcano. II is
q remarkable TACT that eruptions have
sometimes occurred at or about the
same time from volcanoes far distant
from each other, giving rise 10 an opin-
ion held by some physicists that a sub
terTanean connection existed between
the mountains. The fact that Vesuvius
is reported 70 be in lively and inereas-
ing eruption at the present moment
gives color 10 this theory, and leads ad-
ditional interest to the volcanic situa-
tion.