The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-15
JAPAN'S MOUNTAIN OF FIRE THRILLS
 AWED SPECTATORS
Eye Witness Vividly Describes
 Eruption of Yagegatake.

Matsumoto, Japan, July 15-The recent eruption of Yagatake. or Noun | tain of Fire, though it caused no loss | of life, was one of the most thrilling and extraordinary in recent Japanese | volcanic history Several days after itlae first outbreak tourists discovered | that a lake a mile in diameter had been formed at the base of the noun 1 tain.
 J. Merle Davis, formerly of Illinois, l honorary secretary of the Young ] Mems Christian Association of Tokio. was staying here during the eruption and has given his impressions to the Associated Press as follows:
 Sunday morning, I was awakened l at by a series of earthquake shocks which grew in intensity until it seem ed as if the house would fall to pieces before we could get out Of it. .fAs I reached the door, half-dress- ed, with an ear-rending concussion. the big mountain. whose base is only two miles from the hotel began to get busy. From it's eastern slope, a. mile below the old craters at the summit. it blew out volume of rocks, mud. steam, smoke and ashes in a. vast coI- umn. The whole valley was filled with a pandenon1jm of soun das the granite cliffs hurled ltEhe echoes back and forth.
 "A heavy cloud of smoke rolling in large puffs, and waves, spread over the valley, turning bright sunshine in- to twilight Soon ashes began to fall, but must confess did not wait to measure them for was already making good time up the river path roward shima-stlanaa1 At the bridge. a smile above the hotel, began to get ashamed of myself. and as nothing worse than a shower Of lgint ashes had happened and since breakfast was waiting down the river, I returned
 sA1l day long the mountain roa.red in heavy plIlgations. The wind brought the sound of the crashing rocks and trees and escayfng steam. Four new craters had opened on the volcano, about half way between base and summit. From one Of these a stream of lava and rock was pouring out and slipping down the slope to the river, a fhoueand feet below. To- wand might a. heavy. rain began to fall. and after a second day of torren1aa1 rain and constant volcanic activity, this morning dawned upon as strange a world as the ilrnag4nafion could pos- sibly picture.
 .sA glorious Alpine valley. with splendid fir and beech forests as fine as grow anywhere in Japan, was now sprayed. dripping and drowned with mud. An area of forest, mountain and valley fully ten square miles in extent was covered with a. coating of volcanic slime from half an inch to four feet in depth. The hardy barn- boo grass the terror of the climber was beaten prone in the mud, and mile upon mile of magnificent timber. the pride of the Imperial Forestry Reserve, was grooming, bending and breaking under literally tons of mud to the tree. Sharp reports and rend- ing crashes filled the air all day, as xT.5 fused longer to bear the strain of their load.
 We have all seen a great forest with tree limbs dropping to the very ground under a. fresh fall of heavy wet snow. but in pIace of the spotless winter covering, picture. if you can, chnging, sticky, sIate-coIored mud, a mud that covers everything and oozes off the tree limbs upon you as you slip and stumble in the slime 4 mud world sand but two days ago the fairest valley in Japan! Yet in the wanton destruction Of the volcano a feature of real beauty has been add ed for there is now a blue Alpine lake, mile in extent, filling the lower end of the valley, a sheet Of water in which the snowy crags and pinnacles of Hodaka-yauaa are mirrored.
 The same mud that was blown over the Landscape like escaping steam, flowed for 24 hours down the mountain side. carrying huge rocks and trees and in an ever widening stream, stripped a, clean path through the forest, a path a mile long and 400 yards wide in its lower reaches Into the river bed, at it's narrowest point, the very portal of the valley. slipped this stream of mud, building a dam of mighty forest trees and rocks The Azusagaw the chief afrluent of the Chdnanogawa4 the largest river of the
 main island. was squarely stopped by this stone and timber barrier which must be full so feet in height. The the lake and are now running over 1 the top of the dam, down a spill-way in wild cataract