The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-06-27
.HUDSON'S VOLCANO
For Twenty-Five Years a
Fierce Fire Has Ragged
Under Snake Hill.
EMITTING SMOKE And GAS
All Efforts to Extinguish the Fiery
Furnace of No Avail What
Old Residents Say.

Only very few people in this county are
aware Of the fact that fire of almost vol
canic proportions has been for more than
twenty years burning incessantly at Snake
Hill. Every possible effort has been made
to extinguish this fiery furnace, but SO far
the attempts have been unsuccessful, and to-
day the fire is burning as fiercely as it did
when first discovered more than genera
tion ago.
Any day in the year visitor to Snake
Hill, if he walks up the avenue that leads
to the Asylum, may observe gas and
smoke oozing apparently from the side OF
the hill directly in front of the south end of
the old Asylum, and 100 yards behind the
new Asylum. On damp or rainy days the
smoke and gas are dense, and the oder is
very disagreeabe. 1t is very like the fumes
that may be inhaled in a gas house.
When the atmosphere is clear and light ishe
smoke is very thin, and the gas that follows
it is not so pungent and oppressive.
About once every six weeks smouldering
fires beneath the surface seem to receive
new fuel, and to burn with great hrmnesS.
1t then becomes necessary for DR.. George
King, Superintendent OF the Asylum, to put
@ gang of men to work to smother the blaze
which, at night, lights up the front of the
Hill. A hose is used for this purpose, and
hundreds of gallons Of water are poured on
the fire. The steam caused by the contact of
the water with the fire is great. and lasts
for several days and then the so-called vol
cano lapses into It's normal condition and
shoulders and smokes as before.
DR. KINGS THEORY.
I asked DR.. King wha6 he knew about
Snake Hills volcano. recently, and he re-
piled that he knew that it was nuisance
and had been one for more than twenty
years.
''What, in your opinion, is the cause of the
FREE" inquired
''You will observe" he said. ''that where
you sse the smoke there is huge pile of
ashes and cinders."
looked and saw that the brow of the Hill
had been whitened nearly a fourth of
acre by ashes and cinders, and then DR..
King continued
''These ashes and cinders are about thirty
feet deep, and are the accumulation of at
least twenty-five years. In some manner,
perhaps by spontaneous combustion, the
cinders became ignited, and that fire has
never been put out. We nave tried and
tried to extinguish it, but always without
success. have had gangs Of men dig down
twenty feet in the hope that We could reach
the burning Goals and draw them from their
bed, but in each case the heat would become
so intense B1aU 10 forced Gl6 men 10 9aIb we
have never been able to reacn the Iire and
doubt if any one ever will. 1t will burn I'm
til it burns itself out All that we can do
when the fire becomes unusually violent, as
it does periodically about every six or eight
weeks, is to keep water running on it until
its intensity subsidies"
do you believe there is any danger from
this FREE"
Not the slightest" answered DR.. King.
st Is simply a smouldering one, as have
| described, and it is too far from the build
ings to endanger them"
"Do you still dump ashes and cinders at
this placer
Yes; that is, not exactly where the smoke
comes through, but near by
SIS there no danger of gas forming and
| creating an explosion"
"Such thing is possible, but highly inl-.
probable, replied the doctor.
l next saw Engineer Michael Carroll, a
veteran at Snake Hill, and one who knows
every inch Of it"
"THE GATE OF sHEoL."
''What do you think of this volcanoP I
inquired, pointing at the same time to the
spot where smoke was ascending from the
''WeIl, now, if tell you, don't give me
away"
Il think" said be, and he lowered his
voice to almost az whisper, ''that it is the,
gate that opens to Sheol, and so would you
if you had watched the thing as long as l
have Why, I'm blessed if I believe that
there is water enough in the Hackensack
River to put out the internal fire, l say in
fernal for it is internal, and the smell OF
birthstone is strong enough to cause every
sinner in the Penitentiary to pray"
How much longer do you think it will
burn@
''Honestly, now, 1 think it viii not stop
burning until Snake Hill sinks beneath the
Hackensack meadows, and l have some
doubts as to whether that williput the fire
out"
WILL BURN FOR YEARS.
Mr. Carroll was becoming entirely too
facetious and gay for my sober thoughts,
and left him and sought Warden Grimes
of the Penitentiary.
warden said, ''do you know anything
about the volcano near the asylum@
II think I ought to. Why to my per-
sonal knowledge that fire he's been burning
for number of years, and some times it
ing right along for many years TO come,
and water doesn't make any difference with
it. DR.. King and l have both repeatedly
tried to extinguish it. No, do not think
there is any reason to apprehend danger
from it. The fire is confined to the vast
heap of cinders and ashes, and when these
burn up if that ever happens, the fire will
die out"
GLOW do you account for its burning SO
much ffercer at times than it usually does~
''I scarcely know. 1t may be that it is fed
by better fuel, or may be the gases thaS
form about thirty feet below the surface
have something to do with it. Then, too,
the condition of the atmosphere may bave
some effect on it, That is all that / know
about the matter"