Year: 1875

The Whole Island Covered with Ashes

 from Two to Six Inches in Depth.

 On tho heels of news of an overflow of the Garonne at Toulouse and terri ble earthquake in New Granada comes tidings of a calamity on the remote shores of Iceland which, considering the limited area of the country, is as severe visitation to its inhabitants as the in- undation has been to the French. The island, as is we'll known, is the unfor- tunate possessor of several active vol canoes, some of which are situated in an unexplored region, and have not yet been looked upon by mortal eye. But their uneasy contents have been made manifest from time to time by dense showers of ashes, which have fallen many miles away and destroyed the scanty vegetation upon which the focks of the people have subsisted.

 In March last the district of Mulasysla was visited by one of these disasters, the greatest, say the advices, that has afflicted Iceland since 17S3, when 14, GOO people were destroyed. A gentleman living in the devastated country writes for the European mail an account from which the following paragraph is taken. Aside from it's value as description of the gloomy and dreadful visitation, it gives information of unusual interest to scientific mon r.,'

 On Easter Monday, early in the morn ing, loud rumbling noises were heard to the westward, and apparently travelled towards the northeast. Presently the sounds turned backward. The air was heavy and jet black towards the north and northeast. About nine o'clock whitish-gray scoriaceous sand began to fall from the sky, the particles averaging the size of grain, but in shape longer. The dark column moved on nearer and nearer, and the darkness rapidly in creased, while the scoriaceous hail thick ened at the same rate. A full hour be- fore noon the darkness was as dense as that of @ windowless house. Even abroad the fingers of the hand could not be distinguished at the distance of few inches from the eye. The pitch dark ness lasted for about an hour. IDHring the dark all glass windows appeared like mirrors to those outside, refecting the objects on which the light fell as if they had been covered outside with coat of quicksilver. For four consecutive hours 1t Was necessary to have lighted candles in the house. P During that time the flashes and sand were falling thick and fast. Lightning and elaps of thunder were at the same time seen and heard in rapid succession, and everything seemed to trenble again. The air was charged with electricity to such an extent that pinhaeles and staff spikes of iron when turned ill the air seemed all ablaze.

 When the darkness passed away it was discovered that the surface of the island to an extent of nearly 5000 square miles had been covered with layer of ashes and scorise from one and half to eight inches deep. In many places pumice powders as large as the fist had fallen. The ashes calne down hot, with n sul- phurous smell, but both heat and odor were soon dissipated. The pasturage was destroyed, and as it was upon that that the sheep and cattle lived, famine stares the inhabitants in the face. The result has been that the people, hastily abandoning their homes, have fled into the neighboring districts, which, though untouched by the eruption, are but scantily provisioned, and so the over crowding threatens starvation to all. It is to save the Icelanders from. this i'm pending calamity that the cry goes up from the chief men of Reykjavik for help sl ~-s 2. EsIfl-9t,e)