THE C.EEAT ERUPTION OF SAKURA-JIMA IN 1914. 



123 



The much talked- of injurious action of juvenile soil upon 

 plantations will soon disappear after a few months, by rainfall, 

 through the leaching of the soluble salts into the fast soaking 

 bottom. Southern Kyushu is a plateau of Diluvial pumice bed, 

 more than 200 m. thick, formed by deposition of éjecta of ancient 

 volcanoes. Eecent deposits are exactly of the same kind as those 

 of past geologic ages, they are all able to produce fertile soil 

 and are w^ell fitted for pasturage and certain kinds of subtropical 

 plantations, as in the case of Central America. The only defect is 

 the dearth of water and on this account the land could not well 

 be brought under cultivation for rice paddies. 

 ' The mode of deposition of eiecta is interesting and 



Deposition ^ j. j o 



OF Ejecta regular. It cau be best seen at Kurokami at the foot 

 of Nabé-yama, where 

 the maximum tliick- 

 ness attained 1.8 ???., 

 burying houses even 

 to the eaves (Text-figs. 

 22 and 25). Banks 

 of a dry river nearby 

 expose a good profile. 

 a) The basal de- 

 ix)sit is an accumula- 

 tion of coarse angular 

 fragments of preëxist- 



Fig. 25. 



AsL-buried village of Kurokami on the 

 eastern shore. 



