THE GREAT ERUPTION OF SAKURA-.TIMA IN 1914. 61 



coming dreadful event, a large proportion^^ of the aged, infant and 

 female population of the island fled to the nearest mainland from 

 early day till lat(^ in the moon-lit night of the 11th. 



The whole population around Kagoshima Bay spent a restless 

 night, especially those who did not take to their heels from 

 Sakura-jima passed the ever-trembling night in the cold open air. 

 Clouds of gases were no doubt already issuing somewhere from 

 the western slo}>e during the night. 



The East Of the cast WO kucw vcry little, as the inhabitants 



had already deserted the island during the day, only a very few 

 invalids and policemen'"^ stayed behind. 



B) Surface Manifestations of Activity at Sakura-jioia.— 



The rjijj^, FiKS'j' Phase. Eventuallv the fateful dav''^ dawned ; 



^ rira^ ^^^^ weather was fine and calm ; the low pressure had 



. oRNi>G si^iftod its centre eastwards already on the 10th. The 



quakings abated a little between 1 and 3 a.:m., suggesting that 



during these remarkably quiet hours fissures or spaces . opened 



1) 2i,577 out of 27,lir, of the iiiliabitants in the villuges with which the island is dotted 

 all round the coast. 



2) The Avriter knows of one case, where sufferers at Jvurokaini were literally entombed 

 under the pumice-lapilli burden (2 m. thick) and in their crushed houses for two days without 

 food; at last they took courage to embark on a boat which was entrapi^ed in the thick pumice 

 sea {12 cm. thick). They were saved by some volunteering yoiiths, who, noticing handkerchiefs 

 waving from a distance, hastened to the spot and brought these poor i^eople to their own homes 

 at Fukuyama on the 14th. 



3) A Japanese author said 137 years ago, when he wrote about the An-ei event at Saki;ra- 

 jima, that eniptions h.ibitually took place at New or Full Jloon. That of An-ei was at New 

 ]\Ioon— the first day of the lOth month, 1779, while this year it was near the Full Moon, i.e., 

 the 17tli day of the 12th month of the lunar calender. Jensen says that A'olcanic eruptions 

 occur more frequently at Full Moon and New Moon than in the Last quarter, and at the end of 

 sunspot maxima. ' The Geology of Samoa and the Eruption in Sawaii.' Proc. Linneau Soc. 

 XeiD South Wales, 1906, Vol. XXXI. part 4, p. 665. 



By the way, it is to bo noted that P.J. Eicard, of Santa Clara College, Cal, lately observed 

 a sunspot of great dimensions, twice the area of the earth, i.e., 1/278.5 of the sun. Die Umschau, 

 •Taniiary Number, 1914. 



