POPULAR SCIENCE 103 



On the west side, the main branch of the lava-stream, 

 which had a maximum thickness of about 200 ft., buried the 

 villages of Yokoyama and Akamizu. This branch reached the 

 sea on the morning of January 16, having travelled at an 

 average rate of 2\ ft. per minute. It then continued its 

 progress into the sea, enveloping on the 28th inst. the islet of 

 Karasu-jima, which is 65 ft. in height, and finally stopping 

 after an advance of three miles from the source and about seven- 

 eighths of a mile into the sea. As the depth of the channel 

 which separates Sakura-jima from the Kagoshima coast i9 

 usually less than 24 fathoms, there is no marked submarine 

 extension of the lava on this side. The total area of the 

 westerly stream (see fig. 2) is about 3 \ square miles, and its 

 volume about '08 of a cubic mile. 



The lava streams which flowed from the eastern craterlets 

 reached the sea on January 16, having buried in their course 

 the villages of Seto, Waki, and Arimuza, on the south-east coast. 

 A small hill on this coast, 406 ft. in height, though not covered 

 by the lava at the end of January, was found entirely buried 

 at the beginning of April. The lava-streams advanced rapidly 

 into the deep Seto Straits, which, though originally nearly 

 half a mile wide, were reduced in width to about twenty yards 

 on January 24 and finally blocked up five days later, the island 

 of Sakura-jima being thus converted into a peninsula. At the 

 beginning of April, the lava-mass filling the straits was bulged 

 up into hills 160 ft. and more in height. 



As the sea off the south-east coast of Sakura-jima attains a 

 depth of from 70 to 90 fathoms, the width of this lava-stream 

 above water is everywhere less than half a mile, but the sub- 

 marine extension, as shown by the soundings, is considerable, 

 amounting in one place to as much as two miles from the coast- 

 line. The total area of this lava-stream is six square miles, 

 and its volume "29 of a cubic mile. Thus, the whole volume of 

 lava ejected is "37 of a cubic mile or about one-seventeenth of 

 the volume of the mountain. 



Eruption-Blasts. — From the west side of the island, the 

 plateau of Hakamagoshi projects towards the city of Kago- 

 shima. When visited one week after the eruption, unmistak- 

 able signs of the generation of volcanic blasts were observed on 

 and around the plateau. The school-house of the village of 

 Hakamagoshi was entirely swept away. On a farm near the 



