40 ART. 3. — lî. KOTü : 



Occasionally cloudbursts precipitate unusual rainfall, which 

 runs down from the steep mountain slope in torrents, excavating 

 narrow and deep channels and carrying all that is found on the 

 way. The havoc brought about by high water frequently causes 

 the people great distress. The calamity incurred from tliis cause 

 after a great eruption is very heavy, owing to the suspension in 

 the w^ater of the hght surface deposits of ash and pumice which 

 were thrown out and spread about from the ventholes. 



To cite an example, there occurred on November 20th, 1779, 

 a great rush of mud flood on the north coast, which devastated 

 the villages of Matsura and Futamata. It was two weeks after, 

 but not at the time of, the great eruption of the An-ei era. 

 Mud flood Pcoplc Call the mud flood 1/ama-skhco,^^ or ' mountain- 



(ïAMA- 



sHiwo) tide,' which is always a inore dreadful calamity to the 

 inhabitants than the terror of the actual eruption. Four deep 

 dry ravines on the northern slope, well shown on the Geologic Map, 

 are the indelible scars left by the excavation of that tremendous 

 non-volcanic yama-shiiro. They are the Matsura- gawara and Futa- 

 mata-gawara. There are many others not less notorious, on the 

 northwest and southwest coasts, and always in densely populated 

 quarters. The same unhappy events happened after the recent 

 eruption even outside of the island, causing deluges of mud, and 

 changing the course of streams. 



Melioration-works with timber-bars, hurdle or tress-works, 

 brushwood bundles or gabions are not used w^ith the exception 

 of dams of piled stones, as the torrent directly empties itself into 

 the surrounding seas without inflicting much devastation to the 

 low lying tract, which is here limited only to a small area on shore. 



The geography of Sakura-jima is lacking in names for rivers, 



1) \IL\ \^ It is the Jökellü'i of leelanil. Iddiiigs, • The Problems of Volcixnism,' p. 6. 



