351 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. 



not be reopened, even by a steam-force the vastness 

 which may be guessed at from the vastness of the a 

 which it had shaken for two years. So when the er r . 



/ 



tion was over it was found that the old crater-hr 

 incredible as it may seem, remained undisturbed, as .. 

 as has been ascertained. But close to it, and separated 

 only by a knife-edge of rock some 700 feet in height, and 

 so narrow that, as I was assured by one who had seen it, 

 it is dangerous to crawl along it ; a second crater, nearly 

 as large as the first, had been blasted out, the bottom of 

 which, in like manner, is now filled with water. 



" The day after the explosion, ' Black Sunday/ gave 

 a proof, but no measure, of the enormous force which 

 had been exerted. Eighty miles to windward lies Bar- 

 badoes. All Saturday a heavy cannonading had been 

 heard to the eastward. The English and French fleets 

 were surely engaged. The soldiers were called out, the 

 batteries manned, but the cannonade died away, and all 

 went to bed in wonder. On the 1st of May the clocks 

 struck six ; but the sun did not, as usual in the tropics, 

 answer to the call. The darkness was still intense, and 

 grew more intense as the morning wore on. A slow and 

 silent rain of impalpable dust was falling over the whole 

 island. 



" The trade wind had fallen dead ; the everlasting 

 roar of the surf was gone ; and the only noise was the 

 crashing of the branches snapped by the weight of the 

 clammy dust. About one o'clock the veil began to lift, 

 a lurid sunlight stared in from the horizon, but all was 

 black over head. Gradually the dust- cloud drifted 



/ 



away ; the island saw the sun once more, and saw itself 

 inches deep in black, and in this case fertilizing, dust. 



