The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1879-06-19

having first poured down to the plain
volume of fetid waters mixed with
sand, like the Mexican rivers, suddenly
disappeared. Forty.eight hours after
ward, prodigious mass of lava, issuing
from sources to which nc, one has ever
been able to penetrate, came sliding
down the bed of the dried-up river.
The channel, according to Lord Duferin
to whom we are indebted for most of
these details-was of great depth and
breadth; but the fearful deluge
brimmed up 10 its banks, overfoved
them, and drove in molten masses over
the face of the whole country. Two
oceans of lava were the productsof this
eruption. The one that flowed down
the Skapta was fifty miles long by
fifteen wide. The other, which rolled
down the Hverfsfiot, was forty miles
by, seven. Where it is imprisoned by
the immensely high banks of the
Skapta the lava is five Or six hundred
feet thick; but on the plain, after it
emerged, the thickness of the mass never
exceeds one hundred feet. The erup.
tion continued until August, when the
Plutonic drama concluded with an
earthquake"
The effects of this amazing phe-
nomenon extended over whole year
and over an immense distance. During
all this time clouds surcharged with
cinders hungover Iceland.A They over
whel1ned to q great depth tens ofAthou-
sands of acres of fertile lands. The
Farce Islands, the Orkneys and the
Shetlands were covered with volcanic
dust. The substance even extended to
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 calamites this
eruption must have effected some gigan-
tic physical changes, concerning whichwe
have seen no speculations. 1t wouldap-.
pear, first, that the propelling force
| within the crater of the Skapta Jokul
| must have been exerte at a vast depth
below the external point of egress;
next, that caverns of enormous extent
must have been left by the masses which
wers expelled; and, finally, that, as the
bulk of lava, powders and other ejecta
flowed long distance toward the south,
and represented many cubic miles of
solid matter when cool, change must
have been wrought in the position toward
the previous center of gravity of con-
siderable portion of the mass of the
earth. Whether this movement was of
sufficient relative importance to produce
any thing more than local influence,
we must leave to scientists to determine.
In any case the subject presents
an interesting field of inquiry.
This stupendous eruption devastated
| territory at a long distance; but Mount
Etna is much nearer to man and his
bworks than Skapta Jokul, and there is
apparently danger that Catania, and
even Messina, may be gravely injured.
To protect the former city wall was
formerly built quite sixty feet high !;
and yet. the lava has been known to sur
mount this wall and to pour into the
streets of the city. Since the first re-
corded eruption of Etna named by
Diodorus Siculus, there have been
seventy considerable outbreaks of the
mountain. That of 1869 was preceded
by an earthquake, and attended by the
same phenomena that is reported now.
namely, the opening of many fresh
chasms or craters at different points of
the promontory. The eruption oyer
whelmed fourteen towns and villages,
some of them at a great distance from
the volcano. 1t is remarkable fact
that eruptions have occurred at or about
the same time from volcanos far distant
from each other, giving rise to an opin-
ion held by some physicians that a sub
terraneous connection existed between
the mountains The fact that Vesuyius
is reported to be in lively and increas-
ing eruption at the present moment
gives color to this theory, and lends
additional interest : to the volcanic
situation. IN q