BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S., &C. 731 



only by the quantity of cinders, but by the heat of the fiery rain. 

 This was followed in the month of June by showers of black mud, 

 together with the ashes, while night was made horrible by the 

 fearful sounds, or the kind of infernal glow of fire, flame, and 

 volumes of sulphurous smoke. The observer who gives the account 

 of it, kept his ground in the town of Taal, though the greater 

 portion of the inhabitants had fled. All the months of July, 

 August, and part of September the volcano continued to emit, with 

 more or less intensity and slight intermissions, great flames with 

 dense volumes of smoke. On the 25th and 26th of September the 

 shower of ashes was so heavy that the few remaining inhabitants 

 had to leave the houses, lest they should be crushed by the falling 

 roofs. From the same cause everything in the way of vegetation 

 was utterly destroyed. The whole of the months of October and 

 November were occupied by new manifestations of fiery activity, 

 with an increase of the deafening roar. On the feast of All Saints, 

 the fii-st of November, there was a marked increase of the disturb- 

 ances, but on the 27th the fury seemed at its height. New fiery 

 mouths were opening out at every moment, until the island seemed 

 to be one mass of flames, which appeared to penetrate the clouds. 

 The vCarthquakes and the explosions were really terrific, and the 

 fiery and muddy rain was becoming of such increasing danger that 

 the Padre and the last remaining inhabitants took refuge in the 

 mountains, which they only succeeding in reaching after incurring 

 innumerable perils. The 28th of November was another awful 

 day, and on the morning of the 29th they perceived new jets of 

 vapour in various parts of the island between Point Calavita and 

 the crater in a straight line, as if a new fissure had been opened 

 between those two points. The Alcalde and the Padre, who had 

 returned to Taal to contemplate the ruins which were there, had 

 to fly again to the mountains, for the last great efibrt of the 

 eruption had begun. At four o'clock in the afternoon the horizon 

 began to be hidden by utter darkness from a steady rain of mud, 

 ashes and sand, not in great quantities at flrst, but unceasingly 

 through the whole of the night, so that in the morning there was 

 on the ground and on the houses nearly half-a-foot of the results 



