182^.] in the Islands of Japan. 443 



exaggeration arising from the fears and sufferings of the nar- 

 rators. They have also, it is probable, undergone some altera- 

 tion in character, from their successive translation from the 

 Japanese language into Dutch, and thence (perhaps through 

 the French) into English, Although they do not present any 

 novel features in the history of volcanos, they may serve to 

 show that those of Japan are among the most active on the 

 globe ; and the swallowing-up of the twenty-seven villages in 

 the province of Sinano would appear to be a parallel case to the 

 pheenomenon exhibited by the mountain Papandayang in Java, 

 described by Dr. Horsfield.* 



It is not easy to decide whether the convulsions recorded of 

 the Mountains Unsen and Miyiyama in the island of Kiou-siou, 

 were really of a volcanic nature or not : if they were, the descent 

 of the water produced, as at Vesuvius, by the condensation of 

 the vapours emitted by the crater, or, as in the Andes, by the 

 melting of the snow upon their summits, caused by the erup- 

 tions, has doubtless been mistaken in the narrative, for the 

 ejection of water from the volcanos ; an error which has more 

 than once been committed by describers of volcanic phaenomena 

 in Europe. E. W. B. 



In the beginning of the month of Sept. 1783, M. Titsingh 

 received from Yedo the following particulars of the dreadful 

 ravages occasioned by the eruption of the volcano, Asaraa-ga- 

 daki, in the districts of Djozou and Zinzou. 



On the 28th of the sixth month of the third year Ten-mia 

 (July 27, 1783), at eight o'clock in the morning, there arose in 

 the province of Sinano,t a very strong east wind, accompanied 

 with a dull noise like that of an earthquake, which increased 

 daily, and foreboded the most disastrous consequences. 



On the 4th of the seventh month (Aug. 1), there was a 

 tremendous noise, and a shock of an earthquake ; the walls of 

 the houses cracked, and seemed ready to tumble; each success- 

 ive shock was more violent, till the flames burst forth, with a 

 terrific uproar from the summit of the mountain, followed by a 

 tremendous eruption of sand and stones : though it was broad 

 day, every thing was enveloped in profound darkness through 

 which the flames alone threw at times a lurid light. Till the 

 4th of August, the mountain never ceased to cast up sand and 

 stones. 



The large village of Sakamoto, and several others situated at 

 the foot of the volcano, were soon reduced to ashes by the 

 ignited matter which it projected, and by the flames which 

 burst from the earth. The inhabitants fled; but the chasms 

 every-where formed by the opening of the ground prevented 



* See Daubeny's Volcanos, p. 317. 



f An extensive central province of the island of I^ifop, tfl the north-west of Kai an^ 

 of Mousasi, in which Yedo is situated* 



