THE ERUPTION" OP BAXDAI-SAX. 



107 



great masses of earth and rocks were .shattered as they fell, and broken 

 up into pieces, ever growing smaller as they descended. The beha- 

 viour of this pulverized mass resembled the rush of a headlong torrent. 

 Although boulders measuring 10 metres or more in diameter were 

 mixed up with finer matter, as a whole the movement approximated 

 to that of a fluid. No words can describe the fierceness and force of 

 that impetuous downpour — its mad surgings this way and that, and 

 the bold leaps with which it would now and then bound over low 

 ridges that hindered its progress, and shoot onward down the neigh- 

 bouring depression. It was a magnificent but somewhat awful sight 

 to witness during an afternoon's ramble. 



In a like manner probably, but on a vastly more gigantic scale, 

 the stream of materials on the 15th of July ran down the slopes of 

 ]]andai-san, dividing as it went into two principal branches. 



The main branch flowed northward. Kobandai, it must be ex- 

 plained, sloped on the north towards the Nagase valley, in an 

 unbroken descent; and, as the mountain burst on this side, the debris 

 dashed with great violence down this northern slope in the direction 

 of Hibara, 9 kilometres away. One part of the torrent actually ran 

 up the valley, toward the source of the River Nagase, burying on its 

 way the three hamlets of Akimoto, Ilosono, and Osuzawa. A part, 

 however, of the pulverized earth ran down the valley; reaching Kawa- 

 kami spa and submerging it to a depth of probably more than 40 

 metres, it proceeded southward to Hinokuchi, 3 kilometres farther 

 down. 



The other and much smaller branch took quite a different route, 

 making an angle of nearly 120° with the main stream. It came down 

 by way of Numano-taira, through Biwa-sawa, rapidly spreading as 

 it descended, and dividing into three minor ramifications. The 

 southernmost of these just reached the village of Miné, overwhelming 



