l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 



ble exception the most terrible volcanic disaster which had occurred 

 in Japan since the famous explosion of Asamayama in 1783. The 

 force of an explosion capable of tearing a mountain to bits and dis- 

 tributing it over an area of 30 square miles may well have been 

 sufficient to blow the column of ashes high enough into the air to have 

 been carried over the earth like those ejected from the crater of 

 Krakatoa in 1883. 



An eruption took place of the volcano Mayon in the Philippine 

 Islands, December 15, 1888. Vast columns of ashes ascended from 

 the crater, and in a short time the darkness was so intense that, 

 though it was mid-day, lights had to be used in every house in 

 Manila. Violent eruptions were also reported from other volcanoes 

 in the Philippine Islands. 



The activity of the Island of Vulcano, near the coast of Sicily, 

 lasted 20 months from August 3, 1888 to March 22, 1890. The most 

 violent explosions occurred on August 4, 1888, December 26, 1889 

 and March 15, 1890. An eruption on January 6, 1889, was observed 

 by Prof. A. Ricco from the Observatory of Palermo to be sending 

 a column of smoke to the height of 10^/2 kilometers. 



In February, 1890, there was the volcanic eruption at the island 

 of Bogoslof in the Bering Sea. Three small islands were created 

 in the immediate vicinity, and the island was raised 1,000 feet. 

 Ashes were collected in Unalaska, about 40 miles distant. 



On June 7, 1892, by a great outbreak of a volcano near the capital 

 of the island of Great Sangir, South of the Philippines, some thou- 

 sands of people were killed and immense quantities of ashes fell 

 all over the island. The noise of the explosion was heard at San- 

 dakan, 500 miles from Great Sangir. 



An eruption of Mount Etna began on the night of July 8 and 9, 

 1892, and continued with more or less intensity all the month, and 

 occasional outbreaks occurred afterwards. The eruption was notable 

 for the enormous quantities of smoke and sand emitted. 



Passing now to the period 1902 to 1904, the question whether the 

 frightfully destructive eruption of Mt. Pelee, Martinique, May 8 

 and 20, 1902, and the simultaneous great activity of Soufriere, St. 

 Vincent, produced a widely distributed haze in the earth's atmosphere 

 cannot be certainly answered. On the one hand the measurements 

 made at the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion on the transmission of the earth's atmosphere in 190 1, 1902 and 

 1903 show that during the latter part of 1902 and the whole of 1903 

 the transparency of the atmosphere was very decidedly below the 







