Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-05-03
AMBRYM'S CRATER.
SPECTACLE WITNESSED BY A BRIT
ISH GREW IN THE PACIFIC.

Feet High-VOlCanic Dust Covering Ev-
erything-Immense Mouth of the Crater.
A writer VINO was on board the British
gunboat Dart gives the following account
of the upheaval on Ambrym island, in the
New Hebrides group:
ave were lying off Dip point on the
morning of the 10th of October when it
broke out. We stcered along the southeast
coast, and could then see u dense mass Of
smoke arising near Benbow mountain,
and could hear heavy rumbling sound
like distant thunder In an hour we were
abreast where the stream of rushing lava
was making its way through the forest of
trees AS it came on, filling up valleys on
its course toward the sea- the rush and roar
became louder. Every now and then, amid
the dense smoke caused by the lava set
ting fire to everything would arise u vol
ume of steam as it rushed into the streams
of water. The lava stream must have tray
eled several miles before reaching the sea,
which it did by q. H., completely sweep
ing the cliff away for about 30 yards wide
1t rushed into the sea with q tremendous
roaring and kissing noise and sent up an
immense volume of steam until it reached
q height of between 5000 and 5000 feet,
1t was a grand sight indeed, and as the
lava rushed into the sea explosion followed
explosion in quick succession, sending
huge stones and pieces of rock into the air,
shooting out in all directions, just like
hundreds of rockets sent up as one.
ave lay within n quarter of n mile of
the spot until the hot water began to bub-
BILE up against our ships side, when we
moved to safer distance. The natives
could be seen running along the beach ter
rOr stricken, men, women and children
huTyiug for their lives, many of the wom-
en- with infants strapped at their backs.
Eighty odd of these we took on board and
carried farther down the coast, where we
landed them, supplying them with ncces-
sary provisions. During the day the smoke
and dust became so thick that the sun was
completely obscured and the land, which
was but Il short distance off, was scarcely
visible, That day we steamed round Dip
point and made for the other side of the
island, but getting heavy head sea we
returned to our anchorage Early the next
morning we succeeded in stcaming right
round the island, but could not see where
the eruption had taken place. but passed
hundreds of dead fish floating on the sur
face of the water
"Thcre was n continual fall of volcanic
dust and other debris going on, complete
ly covering everything. On the evening of
this day we proceeded for Port Sandwich
and experienced several shocks during the
passage. We were all glad indeed to get
out of the dust cloud, for it was almost
suffocatng, and the ship below and aloft
had thick covering of it. During the
night we experienced shock after shock in
quick succession, some of them very VIC
lent, causing quite sickly sensation among
some of the men. On the 18th we stccrcd
for Ambrym and passed the spot where the
lava had poured into the sea. Tho flow
had ceased, but steam was still rising from
the mass of lava cooling in the sea. Where
a few days previous considerable depth
of water lay now stood an immense space
of solid lava and rising about six feet
above the surface of the sea. The coast
line has also fallen into the sea in several
places, more especially at Dip point, whore
the coast line is now about 40 yards fay
ther back than it was prior to the crup,
ton. All this am afraid will have to he
"On the goth party of officers and mon
landed at Dip point for a march inland
They did not succeed in seeing the place of
eruption, but they came across streams of
lava cooling, and it was evident that the
flow we saw from the ship was but u
branch stream from the main body of lava.
We were glad to get away, for the ship and
every man on board were smOthcrcd in
fine white sand Another attcmDt was
made few days later to reach the crater
and fields of cooling lava were crossed. In
places were cracks several inches wide,
and in looking into them rcdhot lava could
be seen below the surface. Several steam
pipes were seen, formed of lava and stand
ing about 6 feet high. The trees, with lava
set thiclly around them, were still stand
ing, with lava hanging from their branch
es like so many dead leaves The follow
ing day another expedition to the crater
set out. They passed through several vii
lagos en- route and were supplied with sew
eral guides. The journey was very try
ing one, walking over beds of lava not yet
quite cold, over hills of ashes and cindcrs
passing through valley after valley, over
ridges distance of IS miles, until at last
they came in view of the long sought
crater and succeeded in reaching its
mouth, so as to enable them to look down
it,
1.-THE mouth of the crater, which is al
most round and about three miles in cir
is torn away in one part,
where it is supposed the lava poured forth
The fire and smoke came from one side of
the crater only, and this explains how they
were able to get so close to look into it
Occasionally the smoke and fire would
burst forth fiercer than at other times, and
explosions would follow like the cracking
Of rifles, throwing out stones all around
1t was evident the sides were continually
falling in, so widening its mouth and caus-
ing the explosions. At the bottom, depth.
of several hundred feet, could be seen the
lava in its liquid state. The crater is 2, 600
feet above the level of the sea. The ba-
rometer, at starting was 3O.O6: at the
crater's mouth it was 5000 The descent
from the mountain was made under even
worse difficulties than the ascent, and the
party CROPPED their way down in single file
in the dark, night coming on before they
had gone far.-Samoa Herald.
LongfellOw's Great Addiction.