Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-19


discovered running to the westward.
and setting us farther to the right than
we desired.
within twenty yards of the shore,
the water appeared shoal. and the sea
broke; but as there was no appearance
of surf on the beach, we kept steadily
on till the boat struck the ground The
union-jack was then planted; such OBJ
servations were made as the pressure Of
circumstances and the, imminent danger
of a fresh eruption every moment would
admit of; bucketful of the materials OF
which the island seemed chiefly COM
posed was collected, and we ,re-em-
barked. The form of the crater is near
~ perfect circle, and complete along
its whole circumference, excepting for
about two hundred and fifty yards on
the southeast side, which are broken
and low, not apparently above three feet
high.
1.-THE height of the highest part sup
posed by the eye to be about one hun
dred and eighty feet The outer diam
eter is. think, almost six hundred and
forty yards, and the inner about four
hundred. The whole circuit of the
island conceive to be from a mile and
fragments brought away are compact
and heavy, and the whole surface of the
island is dense and perfectly hard under
the feet. No variety of stones was pro-
cured, nor any lava; neither did I see
any jets or streams of lava while on the
island. ALI the fragments were very
hot when collected, and I thought the
temperature of the sea close to the shore
somewhat higher than farther out, al
though of this I was not very certain.
seven degrees eleven minutes north, the
longitude twelve degrees forty-four
minutes east of Greenwich"
The island went on increasing in size,
and, according to some accounts, was, in
few days, more than two hundred feet
in height and three miles in circumfer-
ence. After attaining this, its maximum
magnitude, it appears to have been
gradually reduced by the action of the
waves. for on the 25th of August it was
only two miles round, and on the Sd of
September it was no more than three
fifths of a mile in circumference, while
its greatest height did not exceed one
hundred and seven feet.
1t appears that the volcano matter,
during its election, had found second
vent at no great distance from the sur
face, for, in the month of August, a
great ebullition and agitation of the
sea occurred, accompanied by the con-
slant ascension of column of dense,
steam. By the end Of Oc-
tober, not vestige of the crater re-
NAMED, and, with the exception of
small heap of sand and scori3, the
whole island was nearly on level with
the sea. In short. it at length entirely
and dangerous reef of oval
shape occupied the submarine site of
Graham Island.
There are some remarkable facts con-
nected with this phenomenon. About
a fortnight before the eruption was visi-
BILE, Sir Pulteney Malcolm, in passing
over the position of the volcano to his
ship, experienced several severe shocks,
as if he had struck on sandbank, and
which he attributed to an earthquake.
The same shocks were felt on the west
coast of Sicily. A circumstance still
more worthy of notice is that there is a
tradition at Malta of volcano existing
on the same spot about the commence
ment of the last century; and there is
extant an old chart of the Mediter-
ranean. which lays down a shoal with
only four fathoms of water on it, and
called Larmour's Breakers, within a
mile of the same latitude and longitude.
Not long before the event took place,
naval officer, in surveying this part of
the Mediterranean, found depth of
more than one hundred fathoms of
water on the spot, where there is now
only about ten feet.
There are other modern instances of
the formation of islands by submarine
as that of Sabrina in the year
1911, off st. MichaePs, one of the group
of islands called the Azores; but no oc-
of the kind has attracted so
much attention or been SO minutely de-
scribed as the appearance and disappear
ance of Graham Island.-Captain Marvin
Newbold, in N. Y. Ledger.