144 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



For there is no trace of any fish, and besides the animal remains I 

 have mentioned of amphibians and reptiles, minute crustaceans and 

 insects, there are two species of fresh water molluscs and vegetable 

 remains, consisting of small pieces of wood and numerous traces of 

 marsh aquatic plants. 



It seems, then, that towards the close of the geological epoch 

 known as the Cretaceous Period, the whole of Western India was 

 devastated by such an outburst of volcanic fury as the world has 

 seldom seen. Of course, there were then no human beings on 

 the earth. But, with this exception, the effect of that loosening of 

 the infernal tires nurr in a measure be realized by the perusal of a 

 very graphic account of a late volcanic eruption in Japan written 

 for the Coniliill Magazine, and lately republished in the Ti)n<< of 

 India, from which I will read a few extracts : — 



" All around was beautiful on that bright summer morning, when 

 at 7-30 there occurred an earthquake shock so violent as to leave 

 no room for doubt that some mischief was brewing. Fifteen 

 minutes later this was followed by a second and yet more severe shock. 

 Another brief interval of about ten minutes, and the earth began 

 to heave like a tossing sea, rising and sinking, so that houses 

 collapsed, totally wrecked, and people were violently thrown down 

 and became actively sick as if at sea. The earthquake was imme- 

 diately followed by an appalling and unearthly sound as of the roar 

 of a thousand thunder-claps, blending with the shriek of all the 

 steam-whistles and roaring steam-boilers of earth, and, ere the 

 terrified and deafened human beings could recall their bewildered 

 senses, they beheld the whole mighty cone of Sho-Bandaisan blown 

 bodily into the air, where it overspread the whole heaven with a vast 

 dense pall of ashes and mud-spray, blotting out the light of clay and 

 turning all to thick darkness. Ere these had time to fall back to 

 earth, there poured forth dark clouds of vapour and such stifling 

 gases as well-nigh choked all living creatures. Then leaping tongues 

 of infernal flame, crimson and purple, seemed to flash right up to 

 the heavens, and after appalling earth-throes were succeeded by 

 showers of red-hot ashes, sulphur, and boiling water, accompanied 

 by fearful subterranean roaring and rumbling, and by a rushing 

 whirl-wind of hurricane -force uprooting great trees and hurling 



