The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-04-24
May turn LOOSE AGAIN
VOLCANO THREATENS, AND LIFE
NEAR SAKURAJIMA UNSAFE.
New Islands Are Forming OF the
East Coast of the MikadO'S En-
pire. Showers of Ashes Fall.


pire. Showers of Ashes Fall.
TOKIO.-The Sakura-jima volca-
no, whose eruptions in January caus-
ed great devastation, is likely to
show still further activity, according
to DR.. Thos. A. Jaggar, professor of
geology at the Massachusetts, Insti-
tute of Technology and director OF
the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
DR.. Jaggar, who has just assembled
Sakura lima. made the following
statement to the Associated Press
concerning his observations:
Owing to the closure of the east
ern passage around the island the
average tide level in Kagoshima bag
has risen two feet. In the short space
of 1000 years remarkable changes
may take place in the topography of
the Gulf of Kagoshima. To preserve
the symmetry of its volcanic cone
Sakura-jima is likely to erupt once
or twice on the northern side in the
future and if the lava elected were to
equal the amount thrown out this
year it might easily cut off the north
ern part of the gulf, thus forming a
lake. Then the water level would
rise and finally this water would be-
come fresh so that a large lagoon
may possibly be formed and the pres
ent villages on the northern shores
may in time be submerged just as the
temples of Philas were covered by
the Nile after the completion of the
Assouan dam in Egypt.
In q Shower of Ashes.
I'VE climbed two-thirds of the way
to the summit in an ash shower.
Lava was still flowing, though less
cOpiously, and the average height of
the bed was 200 feet. A phenome-
non difficult to explain was the pres
ence of round pits four feet deep and
ten feet wide on the western side
in devastated areas. | am not will
ing to accept the japanese hypothe-
sis that they were caused by light
ming bolts. They were probably due
to the impact of falling stones or to
the explosion of hot substance buried
by their fall in tn emoist earth.
''The new island which recently
sprung up near the BONN group off
Japan has been visited by a party
from the ship Chefoo who describe
it as a mass of lava covered with
pumice stone and white ash. The
Chefoo locates the island at latitude
north "a II degrees and longitude
east 141 20 degrees. When the
steamer approached the island app
peared pure white with blackish cliffs
rising about 200 feet. For a radius
of three miles the sea was filed with
floating pumice. The land party
found it exceedingly dangerous to
row near the cliffs as they were con-
stantly breaking away and falling in
to the sea TO JOIN the ALREADY great
mass of pumice. Also no account of
the very soft nature of the surface no
attempt was made to journey inland.
The main crater was located to the
southwest, being a quarter of mile
wide. 1t emitted enormous clouds
of black smoke, obscuring the sun.
At night there was a red glow and
occasional tongues of flames. On the
eastern side a small crater which dis
charged poisonous fumes made an
approach impossible. The water
about was warm.
''The captain of the Chefoo thinks
the whole island viii gradually cliff
off until only the solid central mass
of lava remains"